
Glass. 
BooL 







— I _^ 



THE 



STATE OF THE DEAD. 



BY THE REV. ANSON WEST. 



'All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." — Job. 



Nasfjbtlle, &cmx. : 

PUBLISHED BY A. H. BEDFORD, AGENT, FOR THE AUTHOR. 

1869. 



t?T^ 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by . 

ANSON WEST, 

in the District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Tennessee. 



STEREOTYPED AT THE SOUTHERN '1ETH0DIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

The primitive and present state of man — Creation of inanimate 
and animate things — Order and beauty — Creation of man — 
What man is in his lapsed state evidence of greatness in a 
state of innocence — He was placed in Eden under moral 
government — Had he not sinned, would have lived and been 
happy for ever — Sinning, he was driven out of the garden 
and doomed to die — He was the representative of his race — 
Involved his posterity in sin and death — They, through 
grace, under a new covenant and on trial for another state... 11 

CHAPTER II. 

The body — Its value and dignity — Must return to dust — Un- 
conscious in the grave — All without distinction there — Await- 
ing the resurrection — The resurrection — It was taught and 
believed by the antediluvians, by the patriarchs, and by the 
prophets — Is the doctrine of the gospel dispensation — Taught 
by Jesus — Proven by the resurrection of Christ — Preached by 
the apostles — Is not contrary to the laws of nature — At the 
end of time the dead shall be raised and death destroyed 19 

CHAPTER III. 

The soul — Its existence doubted and denied — The doubt — The 
sleep of the soul — The philosophy and texts of Scripture 
appealed to in proof of its sleep considered, and the doctrine 
refuted — Death not nonentity — The different characters of 
the godly and the wicked 27 

(3) 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Of the soul dwelling about the grave — This doctrine gives rise 
to ghost-stories, and the belief in specters and astrology — 
Witchcraft — Condemned by the writings of Moses — History 
of — Samuel appearing to Saul — The ungodly go to hell — The 
godly go to heaven — Metempsychosis — Believed by the Jews, 
by the Hindoos — Ignorance of the nature of the soul, and 
of God's method of saving it, the fruitful source of supersti- 
tions and false theories 44 

chapter v. 

Purgatory — The doctrine of the papists — Protestants accused of 
misrepresenting Catholicism — Quotations from Wiseman, 
Challoner, Gother — These quotations reviewed , 60 

CHAPTER VI. 

Purgatory — Man guilty — How sin can be pardoned and man 
saved — Various doctrines connected with purgatory — Penance 
and vicegerency of priests — In what penance consists — Con- 
fession to a priest — Quotations from Wiseman, Challoner, and 
Gother — What these authors teach — Proof-texts for confession 
examined — Absolution — Statement of this doctrine by Wise- 
man, Milner, and Gother given and examined — Their proof- 
texts on this subj ect investigated — The practice of the apostles.. 80 

CHAPTER VII. 

Purgatory — Satisfaction the third part of penance — Presentation 
of the doctrine — Detracts from the expiation of Christ — The 
satisfaction made by Jesus sufficient and the only satisfaction 
required — Obedience not satisfaction — Punishment does not 
expiate sin — God does not punish sin after it is pardoned 
to cancel remaining indebtedness — The cases adduced to 
prove that he does investigated — It is disproved by the 
nature of pardon 115 



CONTENTS. 5 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

Purgatory — The passages of Scripture relied on to prove the 
existence of a purgatory, and the power and authority of 
Romish priests to forgive sins, examined and explained 146 

CHAPTER IX. 

The intermediate state — The doctrine presented — The position 
of McTyeire and Wesley given — An objection entered against 
their doctrine — Statement of the position maintained by the 
author in this work — Souls go immediately at death to heaven 
or hell — Paragraphs from the Confession of Faith and from 
the Larger Catechism of the Presbyterian Church — The 
descent of Christ into hell — The opinions of Bishop Pearson 
given and conclusions drawn 191 

CHAPTER X. 

The intermediate state — Particular words, sheol, hades, and 
gehenna — Dr. Campbell and Mr. "Watson on these words — A 
thorough examination and presentation of the use and mean- 
ing of these words — Abraham's bosom, paradise, and heaven 
— The promise of Christ to the penitent thief 203 

CHAPTER XI. 

The intermediate state — The judgment-day — Solemnity, justice, 
and rewards of — Translation of Enoch and Elijah — Christ 
as the first-fruits — Comparison of theories — The devils in 
hell, and to be judged at the last day — The results and 
accumulations of human actions and teachings after their 
authors are dead 214 

CHAPTER XII. 

The intermediate state — Heb. xi. 39, 40, examined — Positive 
proofs of immediate entrance at death into heaven or hell — 
Luke xvi. 22, 23 — Hammond, Milner, Wesley, Bloomfield, 



6 CONTENTS. 

and Clarke on this text — Luke xxiii. 43 — Christ's ascension 
to heaven and session there — The soul on leaving the body 
present with the Lord— 1 Cor. v. 6, 8 ; Phil. i. 23, 24 ; 2 Cor. 
v. 1 230 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Termination of the state of the dead — "Will take place at the 
expiration of time — The dead body preserved by God and 
raised— The judgment immediately succeeds the termination 
of the state of the dead — The wicked sent to hell to exist 
in misery for ever — What the godly shall be after the 
termination of the present state of the dead — Pure in spirit — 
Perfect in body — No infants in heaven — Physical perfection — 
Every one born to a certain stature — Eeached by growth — 
The gospel removes physical deformities — Identity — Precogni- 
tion — Heaven — A place — Its descriptions — Jesus invites and 
receives his saints into it * 242 



PREFACE. 



" Of making many books there is no end ; and much 
reading is a weariness of the flesh." So taught the wisest 
of men. But so bold an advocate of literature, and one so 
friendly to the pursuit of knowledge as was he, could not 
object to making books, or to reading them when made. 
It is evident that he only intended to teach, in the above 
language, that the whole of man's duty is given in a 
shorter space than that devoted to numerous volumes, and 
that it is unnecessary to read so extensively to find out 
all that man should do, which is to " Fear God, and keep 
his commandments." 

It is supposed by us that every author who gives the 
productions of his pen to the public, attaches some impor- 
tance to what he has written, and presumes the same to be 
worthy the attention of his fellow -men, and calculated 
in some way to benefit them. This is true of the author of 
these pages. He has written them at his own instance, 
gives them to the press and sends them forth of his own 
accord, and upon his own responsibility, yet w T ith real, 
unaffected diffidence. It is proper to say, in this connection, 
that this volume has been written under very unfavorable 
circumstances. With quite a meager library at our com- 
mand, and with the duties of a District, and other impera- 
tive engagements upon us, we have found no little embar- 
rassment in writing and preparing it for the press. 

(7) 



8 PREFACE. 

The State of the Dead is a subject of intense interest 
to our race — one that engages the thoughts, quickens the 
attention, and excites the curiosity of all grades, conditions, 
and nations of men. The points embraced in this subject, 
which are discussed in the following pages, are of para- 
mount importance to the Christian world, and are points 
upon which the Church has been agitated and divided. 

In the positions and doctrines which w T e have assumed, 
and endeavored to maintain, we have followed our own 
convictions of truth. With the Bible as our text-book 
and authority for doctrines, and correction and guidance in 
practice, we have deferred to no one, either of present or 
past ages. We have not troubled ourselves to know or tell 
what " the injudicious, inconsistent, over-doing Fathers," as 
Mr. John Fletcher calls them, have said on the topics 
which w T e have discussed. In this we have ignored the 
example set us by almost all polemic writers. The Fathers 
have been appealed to in support of the various positions 
held concerning the state of the dead. If we are to believe 
those who have given us a history of the controversies 
on this subject, the Fathers have been brought forward 
as authority for the doctrine that the souls of the dead 
are shut up in certain prison-houses where they are neither 
doing, suffering, nor enjoying any thing, but are, neverthe- 
less, expecting the resurrection. They have also been 
adduced in proof that the souls of patriarchs, prophets, 
and all good men, are somewhere under the earth, wait- 
ing with eager expectation the advent of Christ. The 
Fathers are adduced as authority for the position that 
paradise means heaven, and also the position that paradise 
means hades. Again, they have been quoted as teaching 
that no souls ever entered paradise until Christ, by his 
death, opened its door, and went into it in company with 
the penitent thief, and that then all the faithful dead 



PREFACE. 9 

entered in. In fine, every theory entertained upon the 
subject, many of which are conflicting, has claimed the 
Fathers for its support. Neither have we in this work, 
as is customary with authors, arrayed the teachings, and 
appealed to the authority, of Councils. In former ages, 
whatever Councils decreed was accepted — whatever they 
approved, it was criminal to oppose — whatever they con- 
demned, it was heresy to maintain. But Fathers, Councils, 
Creeds, and Decrees are of no account and of no authority 
in establishing the doctrines of divine truth. 

But while we have ignored these, and have deferred 
to no one, in some parts of this volume w T ill be found 
a number of quotations made from various authors. We 
fear that, in some instances, the reader will be wearied with 
the number and length of these quotations. Considering 
them necessary to an understanding of the subject where 
they occur, we could not dispense with them. Where 
we take notice of witchcraft, there are a number of quo- 
tations which we could not curtail, and give the most 
imperfect view of the subject. In fact, that part of the 
chapter devoted to the consideration of the soul dwelling 
about the grave, and the superstitions growing out of it, 
is too meager, and should have been extended. In pre- 
senting the doctrine of Purgatory, which is perhaps more 
thoroughly discussed than in any work now extant, we 
have made, from different authors, quotations upon the 
same points and containing the same things. Some may 
think this superfluous. But we have been induced to 
give these quotations in order that the teachings of the 
papists may be fully, honestly, and correctly stated and 
understood, and that we may be free from the charge 
of misrepresenting the Holy Mother, as she styles herself. 
Treating of the descent of Christ into hell, as taught in 
what is called the Apostles' Creed, we quote somewhat 



10 PREFACE. 

extensively from Pearson. Attacking, as we do, the doc- 
trine of this Article, and believing Pearson, its own friend 
who is set for its defense, the best witness against it, we 
could not refrain from giving what we have from his 
Exposition. 

The arrangement of the subjects in this work is our own; 
also, the style. We have followed no one, imitated no one. 
To speak here of the merits of this work, if any it has, 
will not increase them, any more than to array and recount 
its defects would remove or diminish them. So we shall 
leave the reader to discover and admire its merits, and 
to find and correct, or condemn, its defects, as best he may 
be able. 

Believing that this volume contains truth, and hoping 
that it will accomplish good, it is sent forth upon its 
mission by 

THE AIITHOK. 

Camden, Ala., Nov. 3, 1868. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN — PRESENT STATE. 

We propose a book on the State of the Dead, 
but let us pause a moment at the threshold to 
consider man in this life, the point from which he 
enters that state. 

Amidst the evolutions and revolutions of 
eternity, time began and nonentity gave place 
to the elements which God then made. Order 
succeeded chaos, and the darkness profound 
divided its dominion with light. The dry land 
and the sea appeared, and the firmament, and 
forthwith sprang up shrubs, plants, and trees, 
clothing, ornamenting, and perfuming the earth ; 
immediately beasts, fowls, and fishes thronged 
their elements; and, in close succession, the sun, 
moon, and stars, which revolve and flame in 
the far-off heavens, were created. Order and 

(11) 



12 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

equilibrium sat enthroned. No restless billow 
agitated the ocean's bosom; no angry wave 
lashed the beach; no furious torrents inundated 
the valleys; no hurricane swept the plains; no 
electric bolt flashed, rent, and tore; no volcanic 
fires blasted and consumed the mountains — there 
was nothing to hurt or molest. 

Here was a w 7 orld teeming with life, glowing 
with beauty, manifesting the Divine Hand, and 
declaring that for a purpose it was formed. Here 
was an abode fit for a high order of being, and 
soon a suitable creature was forthcoming. Of 
the dust God organized a body erect in form, 
symmetrical in proportion, and wonderful in com- 
bination; by one breath, he finished man, a 
living soul, in his own image, after his own 
likeness. This man he placed in this abode 
to multiply, replenish, and subdue the earth, 
and have dominion over it, and to live for ever, 
loving and obeying his Maker. Such was the 
origin, nature, and destiny of man. 

In a description of man's primitive state, we 
need draw no dark lines, delineate no gloomy 
picture, but dipping the pencil in the brightest 
colors, we may finish a portrait beaming with 
smiles, radiant with peace and gladness, and 
bearing the impress of Divinity. If we consider 
him, even in his fallen estate, an inhabitant of a 
world where confusion, anarchy, hellish hate, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 13 

and diabolic strife prevail, lie gives evidence 
of intellectual and moral greatness. He has 
fathomed the depths unknown, and searched 
out and revealed mysteries hitherto concealed. 
By him sciences have been developed and organ- 
ized. The sciences of language, mathematics, 
geology, astronomy, navigation, and others, as 
well as the mechanic arts, have been, by his 
invention, skill, and industry, carried to a state 
of great perfection. He has weighed the sun 
as in scales, numbered the stars of heaven, found 
out the paths of the planets, traversed all the 
seas and revealed the secrets of the deep; has 
measured the earth as with a line, and, penetrating 
its very bowels, has examined its strata, tested 
its rocks and minerals, and analyzed and classi- 
fied the properties of its component parts. By 
the invention and construction of engines and 
implements, he makes even the wild and furious 
elements serve him. The lightnings and the 
winds are at his command and in his employ. 
Upon the wings of imagination he has passed 
from world to world and raised himself up to 
the conception of boundless space and endless 
duration. Notwithstanding the perversion of his 
moral nature, with all the selfishness and wrath 
apparent in his heart, he is capable of sympathy, 
benevolence, and love, and has been known to 
rise to great and noble deeds, and exhibit moral 



14 THE STATE 0E THE DEAD. 

heroism. If such are the attainments of man in 
his lapsed condition, what must he have been 
in that upright state in which his Maker pro- 
nounced him "very good"? 

For it is certain that he was then far superior 
to what he is now. While in some sense he was 
made "a little lower than the angels/' there is no 
evidence that before his intellectual and moral 
powers were deranged and enervated, he was 
inferior to them in knowledge and wisdom. 
Though he was not equal to God, yet, being 
complete in his own perfections, his knowledge 
was perfect in its kind. We have some indica- 
tion of the excellence of his knowledge in the 
facility with which he gave names to the beasts, 
expressive of their species and natures. He 
also discovered his own superiority over them, 
seeing that none of them were qualified for 
his association and companionship. He had a 
correct understanding, a perfect judgment, a 
faithful memory, a good conscience, well-regulated 
affections, and an untrammeled will. 

Emanating from God, and being in direct com- 
munication with him, he was holy, without spot 
or blemish. Whatever was lovely, whatever was 
pure, whatever was of good report, was in him 
and possessed by him: innocence sat enthroned 
upon his brow, and he was clothed with the 
dignity of an immortal mind. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 15 

God planted a garden eastward in Eden, in 
which grew every tree that was pleasant to the 
sight, and good for food. Here grew also the 
tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil. In this garden God placed 
Adam and Eve to dress it and to keep it. 
Nothing was wanting to contribute to their 
happiness. 

" For Nature here 
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will 
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet, 
"Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss." 

The material and animal kingdoms are governed 
by natural laws. Nothing in these kingdoms 
is liable to censure or entitled to praise. But 
Adam, being endowed with a moral nature, 
was placed under moral government. He was 
under a law, the summary of which was, " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as 
f thyself." This law w r as reasonable, just, and 
good, being, as it has been termed, "a copy 
of the eternal mind, a transcript of the Divine 
nature." As applied to Adam in his primeval 
state, there was connected with it a precept, 
positive or moral, whichever you please to call it, 
in the command, " Of the tree of the knowledge 



16 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it/' which 
was a test of his obedience to the moral law. 
Free from coercion, and yet mutable, in the very 
nature of the case, he was able to stand and 
liable to fall, according to his own choice and 
action. 

In this state and under this law, it was intended 
that man should be free from death in every 
sense, and happy and immortal while he obeyed. 
It has been supposed by some that man was 
naturally mortal, and that he would have died 
even if he had continued innocent. But he 
would certainly have lived for ever, no matter 
through what agency his life was perpetuated, 
whether by the tree of life or in some other way. 
"Walking with his God, loving him, and abstaining 
from the tree of knowledge, he would never 
have known death. This is evident from the 
warning, "In the day that thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die." There would have been 
no penalty in this, and it could have had no 
influence upon him if death had been his natural 
doom. The language of Eve to the serpent 
indicates that death was not to come upon them 
while they observed the precept, but that a 
violation of it would be visited with death as 
a penalty. It is evident, therefore, that the 
eating of the forbidden fruit 

" Brought death into the world, and all our woe." 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 17 

For the serpent, the most subtle beast of the 
field, instigated by the devil, tempted man; the 
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil was eaten, and 

" Earth felt the wound ; and Nature, from her seat, 
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, 
That all was lost." 

Innocence, holiness, peace, happiness, and life, 
were all lost. 

God now sent them forth from the Garden 
of Paradise. They were nevermore to promenade 
its delightful walks; nevermore to eat of its 
delicious fruits ; nevermore to quench their thirst 
at its gushing fountains ; nevermore to inhale the 
fragrance of its flowers ; nevermore to rest 
in its shady bowers ; nevermore to commune 
with their Maker in its innocent retirement. 
The gate was closed upon them, and cherubim 
and a flaming sword were placed to keep the 
way of the tree of life. And God said to Adam, 
" In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread 
till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it 
w T ast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return." 

In closing this chapter, it is necessary to 
remark that death, the penalty of the original 
sin, includes death temporal, death spiritual, and 



18 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

death eternal; and that Adam being the federal 
head and legal representative of his posterity, 
they are involved with him in the same sin and 
penalty. " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered 
into the world, and death by sin; and so death 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." 

Through grace abounding in Christ, the second 
Adam, man is under a new covenant, and on 
trial for another state. On certain conditions, 
the penalty of sin may, eventually, be removed 
altogether. There is, however, no possibility of 
escaping temporal death, which is the separation 
of the soul from the body. The fiat has gone 
forth, " Dying, thou shalt die." The first pulsa- 
tions of life are but the throes of death ; genera- 
tion crowds generation to the tomb — the whole 
race is but a funeral train, and our earth is but 
a wide burial-ground. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD, 



19 



CHAPTER II. 

THE STATE OF THE DEAD BODY. 

Let us speak a little of the body in the land 
of darkness and the shadow of death. Though 
this body is the house in which the soul taberna- 
cles during the threescore years and ten allotted 
to man on earth, and though it is, as our Saviour 
tells us, "more than raiment," there is a deep 
gloom hanging over its destiny — there is a dark 
chapter in its history. Though it is curiously 
wrought, though there is grace in its steps and 
dignity in its motions, though there are the glow 
of health and the light of beauty upon its cheeks, 
though there are fire and eloquence in its eyes, 
though there are music and melody in its voice, 
though intelligence and honor sit upon its brow, 
yet, " Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt 
return," is the declaration made concerning it 
and the sentence written against it. Man goes 
forth to his work, and in the very midst of his 
labors he bows himself, the silver cord is loosed, 
the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is broken 
at the fountain, the wheel broken at the cistern, 



20 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

and the soul returns to God who gave it, and 
the body to the dust from whence it was taken. 
Now the gold has become dim; the health and 
beauty are gone from the cheeks ; the fire and 
eloquence are departed from the eyes ; the melo- 
dious voice is hushed ; the brow is cold and hard 
as marble ; the limbs are rigid — there is nothing 
presented but a hideous form and a putrid mass. 
Whether Egyptian art embalm it, or the pride 
of wealth give it to the flames, or the casualties 
of navigation commit it to the ocean's deep, or 
affection and friendship confine it in marble, or 
deposit it in a spacious vault, or poverty or w r ar 
leave it to the fowls of heaven and the beasts of 
prey, it returns to the earth as it was. 

The body in the grave is in an unconscious 
state. They that go down to the tomb, "go 
down into silence " — there are darkness and still- 
ness ; there is no more light, life, or thought than 
there is in the stones of the valley. Neither 
wealth, rank, nor dominion is in that land of 
shades. "Naked came I out of my mother's 
womb, and naked shall I return thither." "We 
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain 
w r e can carry nothing out." " There the prisoners 
rest together; they hear not the voice of the 
oppressor. The small and the great are there ; 
and the servant is free from his master." The 
king and the subject, the rich and the poor, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 21 

the prince and the beggar meet together — all 
equally low. 

There is one other feature in connection with 
the dead body, of no little importance to the 
sorrowing sons of men. It shall not always 
remain in a decomposed state. While it is a 
prisoner in this dark abode, it is a prisoner await- 
ing release. The bow of promise spans the tomb, 
and the star of hope gleams upon its dark vault. 
The body no less than the soul is immortal. 
The grave may detain the body, but can never 
destroy its immortality, identity, and individu- 
ality. " If a man die, shall he live again ?" 
Yes ; his flesh may be decomposed by the flames; 
it may be food for worms; it may be seen in 
the vegetation which springs out of the soil it 
enriches, or in the meat upon the bones of the 
vulture it has fattened; it may be scattered in 
thousands of atoms to the various points of the 
compass, but its individuality shall be preserved 
and its immortality remain to it. 

The resurrection of the dead has been taught 
and believed in every dispensation of the world. 
The antediluvians who walked with God, believed 
in and were cheered by the prospect of deliver- 
ance from the grave, for they looked for a city 
which hath foundations, and declared plainly that 
they sought a country. In the translation of 
Enoch, God gave to the antediluvians a clear 



22 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

manifestation and an unfailing pledge of a future 
life for both soul and body. All along clown 
from the days of the flood to the bringing in of 
the gospel dispensation, the resurrection of the 
dead was the theme and hope of the worshipers 
of the Most High God. Abraham offered his 
son Isaac, " accounting that God was able to raise 
him up, even from the dead." "While Job, in 
mournful tones, exclaims, " My breath is corrupt, 
my days are extinct, the graves are ready for 
me," he says, in most triumphant strains, "I 
know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall 
stand at the latter day upon the earth; and 
though after my skin worms destroy this body, 
yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall 
see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
not another." As David sang the praise of God, 
with gladness of heart, he uttered these words, 
" My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou w T ilt 
not leave my soul in hell." Isaiah, seeing the 
coming of the Messiah and the day of the 
resurrection, calls upon those who dwell in the 
dust to "awake and sing," declaring to them, 
" Thy dead men shall live, together with my 
dead body shall they arise." Standing upon the 
mount of vision, illumined by the light of inspira- 
tion, and guided by the spirit of prophecy, 
portraying the doom of future kingdoms, and 
foretelling the rise, progress, and duration of 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 28 

Messiah's reign, Daniel announced the doctrine 
of the resurrection and the destiny of the race, 
saying, "And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever- 
lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt." 

The resurrection is preeminently the doctrine 
of the present, or gospel, dispensation. At the 
time of Christ's ministry, a sect called Sadducees 
denied the resurrection of the dead and the 
existence of angels and spirits. In the following 
Scripture we have a most masterly refutation 
of their doctrine : " The same day came to him 
the Sadducees, which say that there is no resur- 
rection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses 
said, If a man die, having no children, his brother 
shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto 
his brother. Now there were with us seven 
brethren; and the first, when he had married 
a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his 
wife unto his brother : likewise the second also, 
and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all 
the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrec- 
tion whose wife shall she be of the seven? for 
they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto 
them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor 
the power of God. For in the resurrection 
they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, 
but are as the angels of God in heaven. But 



24 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

as touching the resurrection of the dead, have 
ye not read that which was spoken unto you 
by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, 
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 
God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living." Here the Sadducees were silenced by 
their own Scriptures, which show the power 
of God to give life to his servants. 

To crown this doctrine with the most indubita- 
ble proof, we have the resurrection of Jesus, 
lie taught that he, himself, would rise from 
the dead. " From that time forth began Jesus 
to show unto his disciples, how that he must 
go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of 
the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and 
be killed, and be raised again the third day." 
His prediction was fulfilled. Being crucified and 
buried, he rose on the third day. To this, we 
have the testimony of the Roman guard, the 
testimony of the twelve apostles who saw him 
and conversed with him at different times, and 
that of above five hundred brethren who saw 
him at one time. Having himself risen from the 
dead, he has become "the first-fruits" of those 
who sleep. His resurrection is a pledge of the 
resurrection of his saints. 

The apostles went forth everywhere, "and 
preached through Jesus the resurrection from 
the dead." When Paul was arraigned to answer 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 25 

for being a Christian, he declared, " Of the hope 
and resurrection of the dead I am called in 
question." This doctrine he defended on all 
occasions. And in writing to the Corinthians, 
he shows that the resurrection of the body has an 
analogy in the productions of nature. The grain 
of wheat sown in the ground dies, but it germinates 
and reappears, bearing grain of the same kind. 
This principle in nature demonstrates that the 
resurrection of the dead is not contrary to natural 
laws. 

Let infidels descant ever so poetically on the 
immutability of Nature and her laws, let them 
found ever so many objections upon the phe- 
nomena discovered in connection with the dead 
body, yet Nature, as she renews herself, indicates 
the possibility of the resurrection of the human 
body, and Nature's God has promised it. This 
promise throws a blaze of light across the valley 
of death, and lights up to our view a land of life 
and immortality. 

Man may w T aste away in the grave "till the 
heavens be no more," but when the voice of the 
archangel and the trump of God are heard pub- 
lishing the funeral of time, the sitting of the 
judgment, and the day of the resurrection, as 
in Ezekiel's vision in the valley which was full 
of dry bones, there shall be a shaking among the 
graves, and bone shall come to its bone, and the 



26 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

sinews and the flesh shall come upon them, and 
the skin shall cover them, and the breath shall 
come into them, and they, living, shall stand up, 
an exceeding great army, even the whole human 
family, in their own personal existence. The 
same body which the soul inhabited here shall 
come forth from the tomb in power, in honor, and 
in glory, spiritualized, a fit abode for that soul in 
the mansions of immortals. The last enemy, 
Death, shall be destroyed, " For, as in Adam all 
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 27 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SOUL SLEEPING. 

Having, in the previous chapter, said all that 
we deem necessary to say at this time about the 
body, we shall devote a space to the consideration 
of that nobler part of man, the spirit. Some have 
doubted, and infidels have denied, the existence 
of the soul. Where no revelation is possessed, 
where no sciences exist, where the soul has 
never tried its strength, and made apparent its 
powers, it is not strange that man should 
be ignorant of his nature, and entertain 
vague opinions concerning his destiny after the 
termination of his earthly pilgrimage; but that 
he, possessing a well-authenticated revelation of 
the fact, and enjoying the light of science and 
the developments of philosophy, should deny the 
existence of the soul, is stranger than fiction, and 
is an insult to wisdom, an outrage upon intelli- 
gence. Before the existence of the soul can 
be successfully refuted, man must annihilate 
the works of man, and disprove the revelation 
of God. But, indeed, the accomplishment of this 



28 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

task would prove that it does exist. For matter 
never has, and never can, whatever its propor- 
tions, dimensions, or combinations, annihilate any 
thing. However great or numerous the propaga- 
tions of matter, it cannot conceive or give birth 
to a doubt. Not even the brutes, with all their 
instinct, were ever known to reason. They are 
not capable of stating and entertaining a question. 
Some one has, in poetic fancy, expressed the 
idea that a Hush proves the being upon whose 
cheek it sits more than mortal. Whether we 
receive this idea or not, we must admit that a 
doubt proves the being who entertains it more 
than material. Deprive us of every other witness, 
strip us of every other argument, and we would 
present ourselves before the tribunal of infidelity, 
and there array the doubt of the existence of the 
soul, as a living witness and a conclusive argu- 
ment that it does exist. And should infidelity 
tell us, as the only way of repelling the argument, 
that she doubts the doubt of the existence of the 
soul, we would array the doubt of the doubt as a 
complete proof that the soul does exist. Should 
she assert that she doubts the doubt of the doubt, 
and so on, ad infinitum, we would array the last 
doubt of the last doubt as demonstration demon- 
. strated that there is in man a soul. 

This being the proper place, we will consider 
the question, Does the soul sleep in the grave 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 29 

during the interval between death and the 
resurrection? To this question we answer in 
the negative ; though from the remotest periods 
of antiquity to the present, some have believed 
and taught that it does. That barbarous tribes 
who know but little or nothing of the nature 
of the soul and the resurrection of the body, 
and who have deposited the lifeless remains — 
all that is seen — of their kindred in the grave, 
and who have witnessed the silence and more 
than nightly gloom of the city of the dead, 
should believe that the tuliole man sleeps in 
unconscious repose, is quite natural. But this 
notion is not confined to the rude and barbarous, 
for, from its earliest ages,* there have been in the 
Church those known as Materialists, who hold the 
same opinion. This doctrine they found upon 
their principles of philosophy, and those passages 
of Scripture which speak of death as a sleep 
and a state of unconscious inactivity. In attempt- 



*At the commencement of the Reformation, and during 
the early controversies attending it, the doctrine that the 
soul sleeps from the death of the body until the resurrec- 
tion, was held by many. It is said some of the Reformers 
adopted this theory as a refuge from, and a refutation of, 
the dogmas of purgatory and saint- worship. Some authors 
contend that Luther himself believed and taught that the 
souls of the dead remain in unconscious repose until the 
resurrection. 



30 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

ing a refutation of this doctrine, we shall enter 
into a brief examination of this philosophy and 
these proof-texts. 

These Materialists teach in their philosophy 
that the soul is material; that it is the result 
of material organization; that the corporeal and 
mental faculties exist in the same substance, and 
develop, mature, and decay together. If this 
be true, it follows, beyond a doubt, that the soul 
can have no conscious existence until the reorgan- 
ization and resuscitation of the body. If man's 
sensations, thoughts, and desires are only the 
results of association, if they are only produced 
by particles of matter, as the vibrations of a 
pendulum, the sounds of a bell, or the sparks 
of fire from a rock, then, when the body is 
disorganized and the brain decomposed, thought 
and feeling, desire and knowledge, all cease, 
and the whole man is unconscious, and must 
so remain until the resurrection. 

But that the soul is material, that the corporeal 
and mental faculties cohere in the same substance, 
is wholly unfounded, and contrary to all the 
known laws and properties of mind and matter. 

The properties of spirit and matter are totally 
distinct, and can never be confounded. To spirit 
belong feeling, thought, reason, will, and action. 
The soul loves and hates, rejoices and grieves, 
hopes and despairs. In possession of its noble 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 31 

faculties, it can compare the various objects by 
which it is surrounded, and in so doing experi- 
ence different emotions. The beautiful fills it 
with delight, the hideous with disgust, while the 
sublime inspires with awe. With almost un- 
bounded powers, it can even go beyond the 
immediate objects by which it is surrounded and 
pay reverence to the Great First Cause. 

To matter belong the various properties of im- 
penetrability, extension, figure, divisibility, inde- 
structibility, inertia, attraction, weight, hardness, 
brittleness, color, etc., some essential, and some 
accidental. With all these properties it is matter, 
and only matter, without a single quality of 
mind. It cannot reason, will, or act, and there- 
fore cannot be made responsible, neither can 
it be punished. It is related of one of the 
Egyptian kings that, in his rage, he threw his 
javelin at the river Nile for overflowing its 
valley. But we suppose no one, not even that 
king, when in possession of his reason, would 
consider the Nile responsible for its overflows, or 
think that it felt the king's wrath, or suffered 
from the blow of his javelin. 

Though the soul and body are united, yet they 
are so separate in essence that the sufferings 
of the one do not materially affect the other. 
While the body is whole and in a state of perfect 
health, the soul may be suffering the most excru- 



32 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

dating torture. The soul may be pressed under 
a load of untold grief and anguish. No language 
can depict, no imagination conceive, the remorse 
which the soul often endures, even while the 
body is in a state of ease and comfort. On the 
other hand, the soul is often enwrapped with 
heavenly visions and filled with inexpressible 
joy, while the body is scorched with fever and 
racked with pain. Many homeless and friendless 
pilgrims, under the direst physical maladies, have 
gone on their way, rising superior to all their 
pains, communing with the Father of spirits, 
and rejoicing in anticipation of a heavenly in- 
heritance. The soul can be so absorbed in its 
engagements as to become oblivious, not only of 
the pains of the body, but of the body itself. 

Moreover, the experience and observations of 
men contradict the theory we are combating. 
The body has been seen to dwindle, perish away, 
and die. In this decay of physical nature, the 
soul has been seen strengthening and expand- 
ing her powers. We have seen the body expiring 
— the extremities cold — the pulse faint — the 
heart almost still, and in the very same moment, 
the mind active, vivid, and even grander in its 
conceptions and sublimer in its thoughts than 
ever before. Surely, then, the death of the one 
does not follow from the death of the other. 

As stated above, those passages of Scripture 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 33 

which speak of death as a sleep and a state 
of unconscious inactivity, are relied upon to 
substantiate the sleep of the soul. To the 
examination of these passages we can devote 
but a short space. It is said of David that he 
"slept with his fathers.'' The same is declared 
of Solomon , Hezekiah, and others. The meaning 
is, they died, and were gathered with the past 
generations. There is nothing in these texts 
referring to the state of the soul. The apostle, 
writing to the Corinthians, says, "We shall not all 
sleep." The plain meaning is, all shall not die. 
Those living at the end of the world, when Jesus 
comes to judgment, shall not die, but will be 
changed and spiritualized "in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye," without the separation of 
the soul and body, as is ordinarily the case. 
Again, in the same Epistle, he writes, " But now 
is Christ risen from the dead, and become the 
first-fruits of them that slept." By "them that 
slept," he means the dead, without any reference 
to the state of the soul, and he is here teaching 
the resurrection of the body, for he adds, " For 
since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all 
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 
The resurrection of Christ is the foundation and 
evidence of the resurrection of the bodies of the 
human race. The Jewish husbandman offered 
2 



84 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

the first ripe fruits of his growing crop to God. 
These fruits were to this husbandman a pledge 
of the coming harvest. Likewise Christ, by his 
resurrection, has become the first-fruits of the 
dead, giving thereby a token and pledge of the 
resurrection of his saints. The same apostle 
writes to the Thessalonians, "Even so them also 
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 
Those who die in Jesus will God raise up and 
bring with him to judgment. This does not 
teach the sleep of the soul, but the comforting- 
and soul-inspiring doctrine of the resurrection 
of the bodies of the saints. Sleep is a significant 
term for death. The general notion of death 
is a state of quiet, composure, rest. Holding the 
belief that the soul is in an active and conscious 
state when the body is dead, Ave nevertheless 
speak of our departed friends as asleep — at rest 
— in the silent grave. A passage from the 
Evangelist John will show, beyond controversy, 
that sleep and death are synonymous Scripture 
terms : "And after that he saith unto them, 
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I 
may awake him out of sleep. Then said his 
disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. 
Howbeit Jesus spake of his death; but they 
thought that he had spoken of taking rest in 
sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Laza- 
rus is dead." (John xi. 11-14.) What has now 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 35 

been said is sufficient to set this matter in a clear 
light, and to explain all the other portions of the 
inspired record arrayed by the Soul-sleepers in 
defense of their theory. 

But before closing this chapter, we deem it 
proper to give some scriptures, proving that the 
soul and body do not cohere in the same sub- 
stance, and that the soul lives in a state of con- 
scious activity, separated from the body. The 
account of man's creation is in this concise and 
expressive language : "And the Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a 
living soul." (Gen. ii. 7.) Inspiration thus teaches 
that the body and soul were not formed of the 
same essence, and that the one can exist without 
the other. The body, made " of the dust of the 
ground," existed without the soul, for it was 
after the formation of the body that God, by an 
act of breathing into man s nostrils the breath 
of life, made the^soul. The author of Ecclesiastes 
asks this significant question: "Who knoweth 
the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the 
spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the 
earth ?" This question of the wise man contains 
his opinion of the soul's destination on the disso- 
lution of the body. He did not believe that it went 
down to dwell an unconscious inhabitant of the 
grave, but that it took its flight upward to a 



36 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

higher and brighter clime. He tells us in another 
place, " Then shall the dust return to the earth as 
it was ; and the spirit shall return unto God who 
gave it." Talents and learning, science and phi- 
losophy, rhetoric and logic, argument and sophis- 
try, all combined, can never conceal the following 
points herein contained and set forth : That man 
has a body made of the dust; that this body, 
by death, must return to the dust from whence it 
was taken; that he has a soul; that God gave 
him that soul, creating it, not of the dust of 
the ground, nor of any other substance, but by 
the simple act of breathing into his nostrils ; that 
it returns to him when the body returns to the 
dust. Man's expiring breath is drawn, his invol- 
untary powers are suspended, the soul quits her 
earthly tenement, and, now free from all restraint, 
she spreads her golden wings, and, with unearthly 
speed, presses her upward flight to the presence- 
chamber of God, where she receives her lasting 
doom. Had the divine record (fontained nothing 
more on this all-absorbing topic, the following 
language of Jesus to his disciples would be 
sufficient to gratify the intensest curiosity and 
confirm the faith of the most restless inquirer : 
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are 
not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him 
which is able to destroy both soul and body in 
hell." In commenting on this text, Mr. Burkitt 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 37 

makes these judicious remarks : " This text con- 
tains a certain evidence that the soul doth not 
perish with the body; none are able to kill the 
soul, but it continues after death in a state of 
sensibility; it is granted that men can kill the 
body, but it is denied that they can kill the soul : 
it is spoken of temporal death ; consequently then 
the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is the 
soul reduced into an insensible state by the death 
of the body; nor can the soul be supposed to 
sleep, as the body doth, till the resurrection; for 
an intelligible, thinking, and perceiving being, as 
the soul is, cannot be deprived of sensation, 
thought, and perception, any more than it can 
lose its being : the soul, after the death of the 
body, being capable of bliss or misery, must con- 
tinue in a state of sensation." 

In the biographies of two men, given us by the 
Divine Teacher, in his own superior style, we 
have the future world unmasked, and the desti- 
nies of the souls of men, when the dust returns 
to dust, portrayed in the brightest lines : " There 
was a certain rich man, which was clothed in 
purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously 
every day ; and there was a certain beggar named 
Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which 
fell from the rich man's table : moreover, the dogs 
came and licked his sores. And it came to pass 



d8 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

that the beggar died, and was carried by the 
angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also 
died, and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up his 
eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar 
off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and 
said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and 
send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his 
finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am 
tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, 
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things ; 
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 
And besides all this, between us and you there is 
a great gulf fixed : so that they which would pass 
from hence to you cannot ; neither can they pass 
to us, that would come from thence. Then he 
said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house; for I 
have five brethren; that he may testify unto 
them, lest they also come into this place of 
torment. Abraham saith unto Trim, They have 
Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them. 
And he said, Nay, father Abraham ; but if one 
went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses 
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, 
though one rose from the dead." (Luke xvi. 19-31.) 
With this portion of the Messiah's teaching be- 
fore us, we can never entertain the opinion that 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 39 

the soul, on the termination of the natural life, is 
reduced to a state of insensibility. In this para- 
ble and history, we are informed of the end of 
this rich man, the disposition made of his body, 
and also the fate to which his soul was assigned. 
Notwithstanding his sumptuous fare and costly 
apparel, he died, and his hitherto pampered, but 
now lifeless body, was buried. Immediately on 
his decease, the soul, still conscious, took up its 
residence in the abodes of suffering — "In hell he 
lifted up his eyes, being in torments? In this 
place his soul was not deprived of vision, neither 
was it destitute of knowledge, for, lifting up his 
eyes, he "seeih Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in 
his bosom',' and he knew them both. Desire still 
lived, and he was capable of making requests — 
"he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on 
me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of 
his finger in water, and cool my tongue." Again, the 
faculty of memory was still unimpaired : he recol- 
lected his father's house and his brethren — "I 
pray thee therefore, father, that thou ivouldst send 
him to my father s house; for I have five brethren? 
With this account of the rich man, we are also 
instructed concerning the end and lot of Lazarus 
— "The beggar died, and was carried by the angels 
into Abrahams bosom? We are not told what 
became of his body, but his soul was borne to the 
place where the pious commune together, and 



40 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

where " the spirits of just men made perfect " 
for ever resound the praise of God, and dwell on 
the sublime themes of paradise. His diseased 
and emaciated body expires, anon the attending 
angels join his pure and deathless spirit to their 
company, and upon unfailing pinions they con- 
duct him beyond the spacious vault where the 
stars revolve, to the mansions of light in the city 
of God. His earthly sighs and mortal groans are 
but just hushed, when the sweet music and immor- 
tal melody of the choirs of heaven break upon his 
enraptured soul. Can it be true that the angels 
carried the beggar to Abraham's bosom when he 
died, and also true that his soul sleeps in the 
grave until the resurrection ? Nay, verily. 

The texts already adduced, so clear and so 
strong, might suffice upon this point, but we may 
be excused for giving two or three others. Luke, 
in the Acts of the Apostles, gives us an account 
of the martyrdom of Stephen, in these w T ords : 
"And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and 
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he 
kneeled clown, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, 
lay not this sin to their charge. And when he 
had said this, he fell asleep." (Acts vii. 59, 60.) 
On the 59th verse, Dr. Adam Clarke remarks : 
" We may farther observe that this place affords 
a full proof of the immateriality of the soul ; for 
he could not have commended his spirit to Christ, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 41 

had he believed that he had no spirit, or, in other 
words, that his body and soul were one and the 
same thing. Allowing this most eminent saint to 
have had a correct notion of theology, and that, 
being full of the Holy Ghost, as he was at this 
time, he could make no mistake in matters of such 
vast weight and importance, then these two points 
are satisfactorily stated in this verse: 1. That 
Jesus Christ is God ; for Stephen died praying to 
him. 2. That the soul is immaterial; for Stephen, 
in dying, commends his departing spirit into the 
hand of Christ." The Doctor, in commenting on 
the words, u he fell asleep" says, "This was a 
common expression among the Jews to signify 
death, and especially the death of good men. But 
this sleep is, properly speaking, not attributable 
to the soul) but to the body ; for he had commended 
his spirit to the Lord Jesus, while his body was 
overwhelmed with the shower of stones cast on 
him by the mob." 

St. Paul is discoursing in most eloquent strains 
upon the tribulations, persecutions, and afflictions 
he has to endure in the discharge of his apostolic 
duties. At once he rises superior to all these. 
Anticipating his final release from the sufferings of 
the present time, and the glory wdiich should follow^, 
he gives utterance to these w r ords : a Therefore 
we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we 
are at home in the body, we are absent from the 



42 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

Lord : (for we walk by faith, not by sight :) we 
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be 
absent from the body, and to be present w^ith the 
Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, wdiether present 
or absent, we may be accepted of him." (2 Cor. 
v. 6-9.) In this there are no gloomy forebodings; 
no indications of a long interval of sleep for the 
soul. But as if he were writing in opposition to, 
and refutation of, this doctrine of the Materialists, 
he teaches that the soul can exist absent from the 
body, present with the Lord. Paul was no Ma- 
terialist. He entertained the thought, and rejoiced 
in the fact, that he had a soul which, one day, 
deserting its tenement of clay, would be carried 
to its house and home in the heavens, there to 
dwell in the presence of Jehovah, for ever free 
from toils, crowned with an eternal weight of 
glory. 

Paul was caught up to the third heaven, where, 
favored with surpassing revelations, he heard 
unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a 
man to utter to the inhabitants of earth. In this 
translation to paradise, he could not tell whether 
he was in the body or out of it. (2 Cor. xii. 2-4.) 
If it be true that the soul can have no conscious 
existence without the body, the inspired apostle, 
when in the third heaven, could have been in no 
uncertainty concerning the mode of his existence. 

The soul is an independent and immortal part 



THE STATE OF THE BEAD. 43 

of man, with a desire superior to that of the 
brute, and a home above and beyond the grave. 

" The soul on earth is an immortal guest, 
Compelled to starve at an unreal feast; 
A spark, which upward tends by nature's force ; 
A stream diverted from its parent source ; 
A drop, dissevered from the boundless sea ; 
A moment parted from eternity ; 
A pilgrim panting for the rest to come ; 
An exile, anxious for his native home." 

Death never brings nonentity, but a conscious 
and unending state. The godly and the ungodly 
come to death with different moral characters, 
with different destinies, and with different feelings. 
The soul of the ungodly is still depraved, impeni- 
tent, and rebellious, and departs with a certain 
fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion, while that of the righteous, having been 
sanctified from all defilements, and having learned 
obedience to the commandments of God, passes 
through the valley of the shadow of death, 
fearing no evil. The godly man dies, and 

" The aspiring soul, 
Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends ; 
Zeal and humility her wings to heaven." 



44 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OF THE SOUL DWELLING ABOUT THE TOMB — OF THE 
TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL. 

From the remotest antiquity many have sought 
the living among the dead. They have enter- 
tained the belief that the soul, on the death of 
the body, having no other place of repose, takes 
up its abode about the grave where the dead 
body is deposited. Some of this faith have held 
that the soul dwells there for a long time ; others, 
that it dwells there until the resurrection; and 
yet others, that it remains there for ever. This 
opinion, originating in false doctrines, has pro- 
duced many falsehoods and superstitions, and, 
with another, into which men have fallen, viz., 
that the dead can communicate with the living 
here, is the foundation of the stories of haunts, 
ghosts, specters, etc., which have filled the world 
and frightened the ignorant in every age. Whether 
or not superstition is natural to the human mind 
is a question, but it is certain that there is much 
superstition in the world, and that it has given 
birth to many false theories, and, on the other 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 45 

i 

hand, been nourished and extended by false 
opinions. Scores upon scores of the ignorant 
masses are filled with fear and trembling while 
passing a graveyard at night, expecting there to 
see ghosts, and hear from them terrible groans 
and frightful noises. Many are afraid of the spot 
where murders have been committed, and have 
professed to see there the murdered person in 
manifest reality. 

That the soul lingers upon earth and communi- 
cates with the living here, lays the foundation 
and furnishes the support of necromancy, fortune- 
telling, and spirit-rappings. When we have 
demonstrated to ourselves that the soul does not 
linger about graveyards, and does not deliver 
messages to the living in this world, we have 
demonstrated the falsehood, hypocrisy, wicked- 
ness, and absurdity of fairy tales, of witchcraft, 
and of spirit-rappings. This we should do, for 
these very things have injured the interests and 
happiness of men, and the cause of God in the 
earth. The writings of Moses, the oldest in the 
world, inform us of the existence of witches, 
soothsayers, etc., in those days, in giving us laws 
against them, and teach us that all attempts in 
this way to communicate with the other world 
and to pry into futurity are, in the estimation of 
the Deity, an abomination. " Thou shalt not 
suffer a witch to live." " There shall not be 



46 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

found among you any one that maketh his son or 
his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth 
divination, or an observer of times, or an enchant- 
er, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with 
familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 
For all that do these things are an abomination 
unto the Lord ; and because of these abominations 
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from 
before thee." 

Thus, in the clear annunciations of Holy Writ, 
witchcraft, in all its phases, is condemned. In 
the entire word of God we find nothing to support 
its pretensions, while ail its manifestations have 
but served to impress us with its diabolical nature. 
Claiming power to commune with the devil and 
departed spirits, to control the winds, and seas, 
and seasons, and births and deaths, and to put 
spells and diseases upon men and beasts, it is as- 
tonishing with what credulity its pretensions have 
been received by the world, and what absurd trans- 
actions have marked its history. As it portrays 
no sublime picture, and has developed no moral 
heroism, we dwell upon it only because of its 
intimate relation to the subject we are treating, 
and pursue it in this connection only in order that 
the reader may have that knowledge of its 
history which we conceive he should possess. 
To this end, we shall here give a number of quo- 
tations from a work on Demonology and Witch- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 47 

craft, by Sir Walter Scott. Speaking of the 
character and the decline of the fairies of Eng- 
land, the author says : " With the fairy popular 
creed fell, doubtless, many subordinate articles of 
credulity in England ; but the belief in witches 
kept its ground. It was rooted in the minds of 
the common people, as well by the easy solution 
it afforded of much which they found otherwise 
hard to explain, as in reverence to the holy 
Scriptures, in which the word witch being used in 
several places, conveyed to those w r ho did not 
trouble themselves about the nicety of the trans- 
lation from the Eastern tongues, the inference that 
the same species of witches were meant as those 
against whom modern legislation had, in most 
European nations, directed the punishment of 
death. These two circumstances furnish the 
numerous believers in witchcraft with arguments 
in divinity and law which they conceived irre- 
fragable. They might say to the theologist, Will 
you not believe in witches ? the Scriptures aver 
their existence; to the jurisconsult, Will you 
dispute the existence of a crime, against which 
our own statute-book and the code of almost all 
civilized countries have attested, by laws upon 
which hundreds and thousands have been con- 
victed, many, or even most of whom have, by 
their judicial confessions, acknowledged their 
guilt and the justice of their punishment ? It is 



48 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

a strange skepticism, they might add, which re- 
jects the evidence of Scripture, of human legis- 
lation, and of the accused persons themselves." 
(Pages 161, 162.) 

After telling of the persecution against the 
Waldenses, under pretext of witchcraft, and 
giving Floriinond's testimony concerning the in- 
crease of witchcraft in his own time, he speaks 
of the bull of Pope Innocent VIII. in the follow- 
ing language : " This last statement, by w T hich it 
appears that the most active and unsparing inqui- 
sition was taking place, corresponds with the his- 
torical notices of repeated persecutions upon this 
dreadful charge of sorcery. A bull of Pope 
Innocent VIII. rang the tocsin against this 
formidable crime, and set forth in the most dismal 
colors the guilt, while it stimulated the inquisitors 
to the unsparing discharge of their duty, in 
searching out and punishing the guilty. 'It is 
come to our ears,' says the bull, 'that numbers 
of both sexes do not avoid to have intercourse 
with the infernal fiends, and that by their sorce- 
ries they afflict both man and beast ; that they 
blight the marriage -bed, destroy the births of 
women, and the increase of cattle ; they blast the 
corn on the ground, the grapes of the vine- 
yard, the fruits of the trees, the grass, and 
herbs of the field.' For which reasons the in- 
quisitors were armed with the apostolic power, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 49 

and called upon to 6 convict, imprison, and pun- 
ish/ and so forth. 

" Dreadful were the consequences of this bull 
all over the Continent, especially in Italy, Ger- 
many, and France. About 1485, Cumanus burned 
as witches forty-one poor women in one year, in 
the county of Burlia. In the ensuing years he 
continued the prosecution with such unremitting 
zeal, that many fled from the country." (Pages 
177, 178.) In this connection the author tells 
of much more, such as that, " Forty-eight witches 
were burned at Ravensburgh within four years," 
etc. ; but as we can give only a few passages, we 
will proceed to the next. 

Writing of witchcraft in England, he pens these 
words : " The existence of witchcraft was, no 
doubt, received and credited in England, as in 
the countries on the Continent, and originally pun- 
ished accordingly. But after the fourteenth cen- 
tury, the practices which fell under such a de- 
scription were thought unworthy of any peculiar 
animadversion, unless they were connected with 
something which would have been of itself a cap- 
ital crime, by whatever means it had been either 
essayed or accomplished. Thus, the supposed 
paction between a witch and the demon was per- 
haps deemed in itself to have terrors enough to 
prevent its becoming an ordinary crime, and was 
not, therefore, visited with any statutory penalty. 



50 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

But to attempt or execute bodily harm to others 
through means of evil spirits, or, in a word, by 
the black art, was actionable at common law as 
much as if the party accused had done the same 
harm with an arrowy or pistol-shot. The destruc- 
tion or abstraction of goods by the like instru- 
ments, supposing the charge proved, would, in 
like manner, be punishable. A fortiori, the con- 
sulting soothsayers, familiar spirits, or the like, 
and the obtaining and circulating pretended proph- 
ecies, to the unsettlement of the state, and the 
endangering of the king's title, is yet a higher 
degree of guilt. And it may be remarked, that 
the inquiry into the date of the king's life bears a 
close affinity with the desiring or compassing the 
death of the sovereign, which is the essence of 
high treason. Upon such charges, repeated trials 
took place in the courts of the English, and con- 
demnations were pronounced, with sufficient jus- 
tice, no doubt, where the connection between the 
resort to sorcerers and the design to perpetrate a 
felony could be clearly proved. We would not, 
indeed, be disposed to go the length of so high 
an authority as Selden, who pronounces, (in his 
Table-talk,) that if a man heartily believed that 
he could take the life of another by waving his 
hat three times and crying, Buzz ! and should, 
under this fixed opinion, wave his hat and cry, 
Buzz ! accordingly, he ought to be executed as a 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 51 

murderer. But a false prophecy of the king's 
death is not to be dealt with exactly on the usual 
principle ; because, however idle in itself, the pro- 
mulgation of such a prediction has, in times such 
as we are speaking of, a strong tendency to work 
its completion." (Pages 193, 194.) 

The same author tells us how witchcraft was 
regarded by the Catholics, the Calvinists, the 
Church of England, and the Lutherans, in the 
sixteenth century. He then informs us that the 
Calvinists gained superiority over the other sects, 
and thereupon pushed the law against witchcraft, 
sufficiently bloody in itself, to more violent ex- 
tremes. They had those who, bearing the title 
of " Witch-finder-General," traveled through the 
various counties to find and examine witches, 
and who inflicted the most unheard-of tortures 
upon miserable and deluded wretches, com- 
pelling them to confess matters both absurd 
and impossible ; and strange as it may seem, 
such men as the wise and pious Richard Baxter 
were engaged in these things. According to 
Scott, in 1663, one Julian Coxe was convicted 
and executed upon the testimony of a huntsman, 
who gave in on oath that he put his hounds upon 
a hare, and coming up to the spot where he saw 
them mouth her, there he found. on the other side 
of a bush Julian Coxe lying panting and breath- 
less, in such a manner as to convince him that 



52 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

she had been the creature which afforded him 
the course, and the next year Sir Matthew 
Hale, the profound jurist, presided at a similar 
trial, in consequence of which two individuals 
were hanged. 

In the early days of the New England States 
of America, witchcraft, in all its absurd features, 
prevailed. The Presbyterians and Calvinists 
brought with them from the Old World not only 
their bigoted and intolerant* zeal for religion, but 
also their superstition and their belief in sorcerers 
and witches. They believed that the devil, com- 
bined with sorcerers and witches, had power to 
inflict torture and death upon old and young. 

The first case of witchcraft on record as occur- 



* According to their own testimony, the Presbyterians 
and Calvinists have ever been intolerant. In a History of 
the Westminster Assembly of Divines, a book put forth in 
1841, by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and pub- 
lished in Philadelphia by James Kussell, Publishing Agent, 
we find in the fifteenth chapter, which treats in part of the 
disputes about Toleration and Uniformity, this language : 
"The Presbyterians, in both kingdoms, (England and 
.Scotland,) were zealous opposers of toleration." .... 
" The high ground taken by the Presbyterians on this sub- 
ject was very injurious to them, and rendered them unpop- 
ular with many, who now saw that the contest was not for 
liberty, but for 'power ; and that all the benefit likely to 
arise from the change, was to wear the yoke of Presby- 
terial instead of Episcopal uniformity." (Pp. 126, 127.) 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 53 

ring in America, was in the family of one John 
Goodwin. The eldest of his children had a quar- 
rel with the washer-woman about some missing 
linen. The mother of the washer-woman, whose 
name was Glover, gave this girl who accused her 
daughter an angry abuse, and in a short time 
thereafter, the girl, with the other three children 
of the household, were afflicted in such a manner 
that the neighbors concluded they were bewitched! 
These children, laboring under strange convulsions 
and tortures, accused this old mother of being 
present with them, increasing their maladies and 
sufferings; and she was thereupon tried, con- 
demned, and executed. This was but the begin- 
ning : numerous cases followed at Salem and 
other places. 

In 1848, in the town of Arcadia,* county of 
Wayne, and State of New York, there originated 
a species of necromancy, generally called spirit- 



* In a work bearing the title of Modern Spiritualism, its 
Facts and Fanaticisms, by E. W. Capron, we are informed 
that the house at which the manifestations commenced 
stands among a cluster of houses known by the name of 
Hydesville, in the town of Arcadia, county of Wayne, and 
State of New York. This house was occupied at the time 
by one John D. Fox and his family. It appears, however, 
from the same work, that the first puhlic investigations of 
the subject of any note, were made in the city of Kochester, 
in the State of New York, in November, 1849. 



54 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

rappings, which, prevailed for a time very exten- 
sively, fostering and living by infidelity and 
fanaticism. Of late it lias subsided, but there is 
yet a party of respectable numbers who hold its 
doctrines and engage in its performances. Among 
other things which they maintain, they profess to 
receive messages from departed spirits. They 
carry on their communications with the spirits 
of the dead in the following manner : There are 
among them those whom they call mediums.* 
When they wish to converse with a deceased 
person, one or more of these mediums, with 
others of this persuasion, gather around a suit- 
able table and lay their hands upon it. Soon 
the table begins to move. They then propound 
to the departed spirit with whom they wish to 
commune, questions upon which they desire in- 
formation, and the spirit gives answers by certain 
raps of the table. This piece of deception — for 
such it is— may be classed with sleight of hand, 
ventriloquism, etc. 



* These wonder-workers in this rapping art have rapping- 
mediums, writing-mediums, and speaking-mediums. They 
profess to receive written communications through these 
writing-mediums by the use of the alphabet, and they have 
exhibited some wonderful specimens of what they call 
spirit-writing, which they claim to have been made by the 
spirits of the dead, without the agency of any medium 
except an interpreter of what had been written. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 55 

Such are some of the absurdities into which, men 
are led by these false and superstitious opinions. 

We know of no text of Scripture relied on to 
prove the superstitious notion that the soul dwells 
about the grave where the body is deposited, ex- 
cept the passages supposed to give countenance 
to the claims and works of witches, such, for 
instance, as the account of Samuel appearing to 
Saul when the witch of Endor was trying her 
incantations. As we have already said that there 
is nothing in the Bible to support the claims of 
witchcraft, w r e will only add here that the appear- 
ance of Samuel was a special case under the 
ordering of God, and that the history does not 
prove that the grave was the constant or frequent 
abode of the soul of Samuel, nor that the woman 
of Endor had power over his soul to call him 
forth with her enchantments. 

Why should the soul of the ungodly, a vessel 
of wrath fitted to destruction, in which there is a 
fearful looking-for of fiery indignation, and upon 
which has settled the dark cloud of despair, as is 
the case when the Maker and Judge of all calls it 
out of the body, take up its abode about the 
grave ? Doubtless it would prefer to linger there, 
but no power can arrest it in its downward course 
to its own place in the hell appointed for the 
devil and his angels. Why should the soul of 
the righteous, when released from its mortal tene- 



56 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

ment, take up its abode in the region and shadow 
of death and dwell among tombs, where there is 
naught but skulls and bones, corruption and 
worms, while heaven, with its bright angels, 
streams of bliss, mansions of light, holy song, 
immortal melody, and crowns and palms, invites 
it up thither? The soul of the saint, as she 
nears the boundary between this and the " better 
land," and spreads her pinions for that sublime 
flight which is to take her to the city of God, 
may shout, "Almost home !" for soon, yes, very 
soon, she will be there. 

We may now turn our attention for a time to 
the subject of metempsychosis. That the soul 
passes from one body to another, inhabiting, in 
successive transmigrations, the bodies of different 
beasts, birds, fishes, etc., has been believed, at 
least from the clays of Pythagoras, who taught 
that the soul was sent into other bodies for the 
punishment of sin committed in a previous state. 
It is thought that some of the Jews believed in 
the doctrine of transmigration. The following is 
quoted from the Book of the "Wisdom of Solo- 
mon, in proof that the author held this doctrine : 
" Yea rather, being good, I came into a body un- 
defiled," (viii. 20,) while this, from the Gospel of 
Matthew, " Some say that thou art John the 
Baptist ; some, Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or 
one of the prophets," (xvi. 14,) is adduced to 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 57 

show that at the time of Christ's ministry, this 
doctrine prevailed among the Jews to a consider- 
able extent. The question, " Master, who did 
sin, this man or his parents, that he was born 
blind ?" (John ix. 2,) being asked by the disciples, 
is thought to show that they believed the dogma 
of metempsychosis. In fact, theologians and his- 
torians say that the Pharisees, a large and power- 
ful sect among the Jews, held this as one of the 
articles of their creed. Josephus, speaking of 
this sect, says : " They also believe that souls 
have an immortal vigor in them, and that under 
the earth there will be rewards or punishments, 
according as they have lived virtuously or 
viciously in this life ; and the latter are to be 
detained in an everlasting prison, but that the 
former shall have power to revive and live again." 
(Antiq. of the Jews, B. xviii., chap, i., sec. 3.) 
Again, " They say that all souls are incorruptible; 
but that the souls of good men are only removed 
into other bodies, but that the souls of bad men 
are subject to eternal punishment." (Wars of the 
Jews, B. ii., chap, viii., sec. 14.) Mr. Richard 
Watson, however, adopts as reasonable the opin- 
ion that the Pharisees only held the doctrine of 
the resurrection in a proper sense, and that this 
is all Josephus teaches. Dr. Adam Clarke, after 
stating that the Pharisees did believe in metemp- 
sychosis, says : " But it is very likely that Jose- 



58 THE STATE OF THE BEAD. 

phus has not told the whole truth here, and that 
the doctrine of the Pharisees on this subject was 
nearly the same with that of the papists on 
purgatory." 

The doctrine of metempsychosis has flourished 
in Asia from age to age, and it is one of the 
prominent articles of the Hindoo religion at the 
present clay. It is interwoven with the mass 
of absurdities which the Hindoos in their blind- 
ness maintain. We cannot give a concise or 
extended account of their religion, but only a 
synopsis bearing upon this point : Brahm is a 
spirit — the supreme, omnipresent, and eternal 
God — from whom all things emanate, and in 
whom all things are to merge — he is to absorb 
all gods and all things. The soul is a part of 
God : every soul has lived from the time the 
present race of beings sprang into existence — has 
been passing by successive deaths and births into 
different forms and bodies — this is to continue 
indefinitely. Though it is a great calamity to 
dwell in a material body, by this transmigration 
from body to body, sins are to be atoned for, all 
defilements removed, and the soul pass into its 
much-desired, highest, and final state- — absorbed 
into Deity. 

This dogma, like almost all other false theories 
in religion, originated in, and is supported by, 
false views of the nature of the soul, and the 



THE STATE 0? THE HEAD. 59 

means of obtaining exemption from native guilt 
and defilement. Ignorant of the origin, indi- 
viduality, and immortality of the soul, and of 
justifying and cleansing by the blood of Jesus, 
heathen philosophers and pagan nations have 
fallen blindly into this vain and senseless idea. 
There is no necessity in the economy of God for 
the soul to leave its original body and reappear 
in some other, for he punishes in another manner 
whom he punishes, and cleanses by other means 
whom he cleanses ; and besides, this connection 
of the human soul and the body of a beast is 
uncongenial. What concord hath an immortal 
and intelligent spirit with the body of a lion, 
bear, hog, vulture, or whale? As soon should 
we expect Wisdom, who in her prudence and 
goodness has power to form a body undefiled 
and beautiful, and who dwells with delight only 
in houses polished with stones and garnished 
with pearls and tapestry, to abide with indolence, 
filth, and deformity, as for an immortal and blood- 
bought spirit to live and act in a vile and hideous 
beast of prey. 

Nay, Christian, when thy soul passes from 
its present body, it will go to Glod to receive 
its final reward and to wait the resurrection of 
its sleeping dust. 



60 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER V. 

OF PURGATORY. 

In the order which we purpose following, we 
now enter upon the subject of purgatory, which, 
in the very nature, is connected with penance, 
the extension of probation into the future state, 
and the offering of prayers, alms, and masses * 

* Giving us a definition, Dr. Challoner says : " The mass 
is the liturgy of the Catholic Church, and consists in the 
consecration of the bread and wine into the body and 
blood of Christ, and the offering up of the same body 
and blood to God, by the ministry of the priest, for a 
perpetual memorial of Christ's sacrifice upon the cross, 
and a continuation of the same to the end of the world." 
(Catholic Christian Instructed, p. 89.) 

It is claimed by the Church of Home that the mass 
is properly a sacrifice, and propitiatory for obtaining re- 
mission of sins, and also, that it is the same as the sacri- 
fice made by Christ upon the cross. To the interrogatory, 
" Is the sacrifice of the cross and that of the eucharist 
the same sacrifice, or two distinct sacrifices?" Challoner 
answers : 

"It is the same sacrifice — because the victim is the 
self-same, viz., Jesus Christ; and the priest or principal 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 61 

for the dead. The Roman Catholic Church main- 
tains that there is, in addition to heaven and hell, 

offerer is also the self-same Jesus Christ: it was he that 
offered himself upon the cross : it is he that offers himself 
upon the altar." (P. 92.) 

The priests, claiming that this their sacrifice is essential 
for, and beneficial to, the dead, offer masses for them. 
We cite from the Missal a part of the ceremonies used 
in commemoration of the faithful dead, and at the burial 
of the dead, and at the anniversary of their burial : 

" Requiem seternam dona eis, Domine : et lux perpetua 
luceat eis." 

"Fideliura, Deus, omnium conditor et redemptor, ani- 
mabus famulorum famularumque • tuarum remissionem 
cunctorum tribue peccatorum : ut indulgentiam, quam 
semper optayerunt, piis supplicationibus consequantur. Qui 
vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre," etc. 

"Absolve, Domine, animas omnium fidelium defuncto- 
rum ab omni vinculo delictorum." 

"Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloria?, libera animas om- 
nium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundo 
lacu : libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne 
cadant in obscurum ; sed signifer sanctus Michael repre- 
sentet eas in lucem sanctam: quam olim Abraham prom- 
isisti, et semini ejus." 

"Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus: tu 
suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam faci- 
mus ; fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam." 

"Deus, cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere, te 
supplices exoramus pro anima famuli tui, N., quam hodie 
de hoc sssculo migrare jussisti ; ut non tradas earn in manus 
inimici, neque obliviscaris in finem ; sed jubeas earn a 
Sanctis Angelis suscipi, et ad patriam Paradisi perduci ; ut, 



62 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

a third place^ which she calls purgatory, in 
which some souls at death, not in a state re- 



quia in te speravit et credidit, non poenas inferni sustineat, 
sed gaudia sterna possideat." 

" Deus indulgentiaruin, Domine, da animabus famulorum 
famularumque tuarum, quorum anniversarium depositionis 
diem commemoramus, refrigerii sedem, quietis beatitudinem, 
et luminis claritatem." 

From what is here given out of the Missal, it is seen that 
Jesus Christ is offered by the priest as a sacrifice for the 
dead, and in presenting this offering prayers are made 
for them. God is entreated to give to the dead eternal 
peace, and to let perpetual light shine upon them — to grant 
to the souls departed the remission of all their sins, and to 
obtain the indulgence which they have always desired in 
their pious supplications; God is entreated to grant that 
they may be delivered from the pains of the infernal 
regions, and that they may be kept from falling into 
darkness. The omnipotent God is besought to undertake 
for these souls, and to cause them to pass over from death 
unto life. 

In the service on the day of burial, it is prayed that the 
soul just migrated from this world may not be delivered to 
the enemy, but be carried by the angels to paradise ; that 
through the pious offerings made in its behalf, it may enter 
upon eternal rest ; that, being by the sacrifices offered for 
it purged and freed from sins, it may receive indulgence 
and everlasting rest. 

In the services performed in commemoration of the 
burial of the dead, the Lord is entreated to pour upon 
the souls of his servants the perennial dew of his pity, 
and consider them worthy to be placed among the elect 
and holy ones ; that if any earthly defilements cleave to 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. G3 

quiring them, to be sent to hell, and not per- 
mitting them to enter heaven, are put, and for 

their souls, they may, through pity and remission, be 
blotted out. 

That the mass depends upon transubstantiation, which is 
an absurdity, is a capital objection against it. That Jesus 
is really and literally present in the eucharist — that the 
consecrated bread and wine are the real body and blood, 
soul and divinity, of Christ — is contrary to both Scripture 
and reason. The senses of the communicant demur to 
such a doctrine. The bread and wine used in the sacra- 
ment possess and retain all the properties of bread and 
wine, and there are no other properties imparted to them. 
They look like, feel like, smell like, and taste like bread 
and wine, and are only the chosen signs or representatives 
of the body and blood of Christ, which were broken and 
shed for the remission of sins. Neither receiving com- 
municant nor officiating priest can turn bread and wine 
into the body and blood of the Son of God. Neither man 
nor God can change bread or any other material substance 
into Jesus Christ* It is as impossible for God to make 
Jesus Christ out of a w T afer or other substance, as it is for 
him to lie. It is as impossible as it is for a created, divine, 
eternal person to exist. 

Again, Christ cannot and need not be offered as a sacri- 
fice more than once. He has not authorized any one to 
offer him as a sacrifice either bloodily or mystically. He 
offered himself a sacrifice once on the cross. " "Who needeth 
not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for 
his own sins, and then for the people's : for this he did 
once, when he offered up himself." " By his own blood he 
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal 
redemption for us." " So Christ was once offered to bear 



G4 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

a time detained, for the purpose of being purged 
from the defilements of sin, and paying the 
debt of guilt which is against them. Protestants 
are charged on all occasions by Roman Catholics 
with misrepresenting their faith and doctrines. 
Discoursing of the father of lies, they tell us 
he is the author of misrepresenting. They tell 
us what every one knew before, that Christ, 
his apostles, and the early Christians were mis- 
represented, persecuted, slandered, and put to 
death ; and then claim what we are not so ready 
to admit, that they, for the sake of their piety and 
holy doctrines, have endured, and are still enduring, 
like misrepresentations, slanders, etc., from Prot- 
estants. These papists are not exactly willing 
to own their absurd doctrines and practices be- 
fore an enlightened Protestant public, and the 
oi\ly way in which they can keep themselves 
in countenance, is to raise the cry that they 
are misrepresented by evil heretics, who are 
instigated by the father of lies. Now it is not 



the sins of many." " But this man, after he had offered 
one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand 
of God." (Epistle to the Hebrews.) 

The condition of the dead is such that no mass, or offer- 
ing whatsoever, made by the living, can benefit their souls. 
If it were right and beneficial to offer masses for the living, 
which it is not, it would nevertheless be wrong and of no 
avail to offer them for the dead. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 65 

our object, either by concealing, misstating, in- 
sinuating, or in any other way to misrepresent 
any point of doctrine. We would make fair, 
candid, correct, and truthful statements in all 
points, not desiring an undue advantage of even 
an enemy. " Truth is mighty, and will prevail." 
That we may not be obnoxious to this charge 
of misrepresenting, and that the subject may 
be placed clearly before the reader, we shall 
quote extensively from Roman Catholic authors. 
They shall speak for themselves. 

Our first quotation is from Cardinal Wiseman's 
" Lectures on the Principal Doctrines and Prac- 
tices of the Catholic Church," a work which 
the American publishers say "will always be 
a standard reference on these subjects, useful 
alike to the members of the true Church and 
to her adversaries." Here is the quotation : 

" From this subject of satisfaction I naturally 
proceed to the consideration of* another topic 
intimately connected with it, the Catholic doc- 
trine of purgatory. I have often had occasion 
to remark how every portion of the Catholic 
doctrine is in accordance with the rest, and 
what complete harmony reigns between one 
dogma and another; and this position seems 
here well illustrated. On the other hand, no 
doctrine has been so often held up to public 
dislike — although it is difficult to say why — 
3 



6G THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

than the doctrine of purgatory, which follows, 
as a consequence or corollary, from that of 
which I have just treated, so much so that the 
Catholic doctrine of satisfaction would be in-^ 
complete without it. The idea that God requires 
satisfaction, and will punish sin, would not go 
to its farthest and necessary consequence, if we 
did not believe that the sinner may be so pun- 
ished in another world as not to be wholly and 
eternally cast away from God. 

u I have said that I know not why this doc- 
trine is so often held up to public odium, for 
it is difficult to see what there is in it to make 
it so apt and popular a handle for abuse against 
the Catholic religion. I am at a loss to conceive 
what can be considered in it repugnant to the 
justice of God, or to the ordinary ways of 
providence ; what can be found therein opposed 
to the moral law in the remotest degree. The 
idea that G<3d, besides condemning some to 
eternal punishment, and receiving others into 
eternal glory, should have been pleased to ap- 
point a middle and temporary state, in which 
those who are not sufficiently guilty for the se- 
verer condemnation, nor sufficiently pure to enjoy 
the vision of his face, are for a time punished 
and purged, so as to be qualified for this blessing, 
assuredly contains nothing but what is most 
accordant with all we can conceive of his justice. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 67 

No one will venture to assert that all sins are 
equal before God — that there is no difference 
between those cold-blooded and deliberate acts 
of crime which the hardened villain perpetrates, 
and those smaller and daily transgressions into 
which we habitually and almost inadvertently 
fall. At the same time we know that God 
cannot bear to look on iniquity, however small ; 
that he requires whatever comes into his pres- 
ence to be perfectly pure and worthy of him; 
and we might rationally conclude that there 
should be some means whereby they w r ho are 
in the middle state of offense, between deep 
and deadly transgressions on the one hand, and 
a state of perfect purity and holiness on the 
other, may be dealt with according to the just 
measure of his justice. What, then, in God's 
name, is there in this doctrine, viewed simply 
in itself, that can make it so popular a theme 
of declamation against the Catholics ? The ami- 
scriptural doctrine of purgatory, as it is termed, 
is more frequently than almost any other of 
our less important dogmas the theme of obloquy 
and misrepresentation ! It seems to be fancied, 
in some way or other, that it is an instrument 
either for benefiting the clergy, or for enabling 
them to work on the fears of the people; that 
the terror of purgatory is somewhat a means 
of strengthening the arm of the Church over 



68 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

its subjects ; but in what way, it is impossible 
for any Catholic, who knows our practice and 
belief, possibly to conceive. 

"I have more than once commented on the 
incorrectness of that method of arguing which 
demands that we prove every one of our doc- 
trines individually from the Scriptures. I occu- 
pied myself, during my first course of lectures, 
in demonstrating the Catholic principle of faith, 
that the Church of Christ was constituted by 
him the depositary of his truths, and that, 
although many were recorded in his holy word, 
still many were committed to traditional keeping, 
and that Christ himself has faithfully promised 
to teach in his Church, and has thus secured 
her from error. It is on this authority that 
the Catholic grounds his belief in the doctrine 
of purgatory; yet, not so but that its principle 
is laid down, indirectly at least, in the word of 
God. To examine fully the proofs of this doc- 
trine, it is necessary to connect it with another 
Catholic practice, that of praying for the dead ; 
for this practice, as we shall see, is essentially 
based on the belief in purgatory; and conse- 
quently, the principles of both are intimately 
connected together. Why does the Catholic 
pray for his departed friend, but that he fears, 
lest, not having died in so pure a state as to have 
been immediately admitted to the sight of God, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 69 

he may be enduring that punishment which God 
has awarded after the forgiveness of his sins ; 
and believes that, through the intercession of 
his brethren, he may be released from that dis- 
tressing situation ? I have no hesitation in sajr- 
ing that the two doctrines go so completely 
together, that if we succeed in demonstrating the 
one, the other necessarily follows. For, if we 
prove that it has always been the belief in the 
Church of Christ that they who are departed 
may be benefited by our prayers, and brought 
to the sight of God, while at the same time 
it has no less been its universal belief that they 
who had incurred eternal punishment could not 
be released from it, assuredly we have the same 
system as ours — that there was a middle state 
wherein the face of God was not enjoyed, and 
yet eternal punishment was not suffered. And, 
in fact, we shall see how the two are spoken 
of in common in those passages of the oldest 
writers, on praying for the departed, wherein 
reasons are given for the practice ; for they 
assure us that by such prayers we are able to 
release them from a state of suffering." (Lec- 
ture xi., on Satisfaction and Purgatory, pp. 44, 
45, 46.) 

The reader will remember that we are giving 
here the doctrines of the Church of Rome from 
her own authors. "In the mouth of two or 



70 THE STATS OF THE DEAD. 

three witnesses shall every word be established." 
The requisite testimony is at our command. 
From a The Catholic Christian Instructed," by 
the Rt. Rev. Dr. Challoner, we take the follow- 
ing : 

" Q. But are not they that have passed this 
mortal life arrived to an unchangeable state of 
happiness or misery, so that they either want not 
our prayers, or cannot be bettered by them ? 

"A. Some there are, though I fear but few, 
that have before their death so fully cleared all 
accounts with the Divine Majesty, and washed 
away all their stains in the blood of the Lamb, 
as to go straight to heaven after death ; and such 
as those stand not in need of our prayers. 
Others there are, and their numbers are very 
great, who die in the guilt of deadly sin, and 
such as these go straight to hell, like the rich 
glutton in the gospel — St. Luke xvi. — and there- 
fore cannot be bettered by our prayers. But, 
besides these two kinds, there are many Chris- 
tians who, when they die, are neither so perfectly 
pure and clean as to exempt them from the least 
spot or stain, nor yet so unhappy as to die under 
the guilt of unrepented deadly sin. Now such 
as these the Church believes to be for a time 
in a middle state, which we call purgatory; 
and these are they who are capable of receiving 
benefit by our prayers. For, though we pray 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 71 

for all that die in the communion of the Church, 
because we do not certainly know the particular 
state in which each one dies, yet we are sensible 
that our prayers are available for those only that 
are in this middle state. 

" Q. But what grounds have we to believe 
that there is any such place as a purgatory, or 
middle state of souls ? 

U A. We have the strongest grounds imagin- 
able from all kind of arguments, from Scripture, 
from perpetual tradition, from the authority and 
declaration of the Church of Grod, and from 
reason." (Ch. xiv. of Prayers for the Dead, and 
of Purgatory, p. 146.) 

As it will doubtless be acceptable to the reader, 
we will give here a quotation from another 
author; and we do this in great confidence, as 
he writes for the avowed purpose of giving a 
true representation of the doctrines of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, and of defending her 
against the malicious attacks and vile slanders 
of her inveterate enemies. The passage, which 
is taken from " The Papist Misrepresented 
and Truly Represented/' by the Rev. John 
Gother, contains the arguments and proofs by 
which the doctrine of purgatory is supposed to 
be sustained. On this account we would prefer 
to reserve it for a future place, but as it gives 
the correct views of the papists in a manner 



72 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

which we cannot misunderstand, we need it here, 
and here it is : 

" The papist, truly represented, believes it 
damnable to admit of any thing for faith that 
is contrary to reason, the word of God, and all 
antiquity; but that the being of a third place 
called purgatory, is so far from being contrary 
to all or any of these, that it is attested, con- 
firmed, and established by them all. It is ex- 
pressly taught in the second of Maccabees — chap, 
xii. — where money was sent to Jerusalem for 
sacrifice to be offered for the slain, and it is 
recommended as holy and wholesome to pray 
for the dead, that they may be loosed from 
their sins. Now these two books of Maccabees 
were certainly held in great veneration by all 
antiquity, and, as St. Augustine informs us, 
were then accounted canonical by the Church. 
The being also of a third place is plainly inti- 
mated by our Saviour — Matt. xii. 32 — where 
he says, Whomever speaks against the Holy Ghost, 
it shall not he forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come. By which words 
Christ evidently supposes that though these shall 
not, yet some sins are forgiven in the world to 
come ; which, since it cannot be in heaven, where 
no sin can enter, nor in hell, where there is no 
remission, it must necessarily be in some middle 
state; and in this sense it was understood by 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 73 

St. Augustine above thirteen hundred years ago. 
So also by St. Gregory the Great. In the 
same manner does St. Augustine understand 
those words of St. Paul — 1 Cor. iii. 15 — He him- 
self shall he saved: yet so as by fire^ where he 
thinks him to speak of a purging fire. So the 
same Father understands that prison of which 
St. Peter speaks — 1 Peter iii. 19 — to be some 
place of temporal chastisement. And if this 
great Doctor of the Church, in those purer times, 
found so often in the Bible a place of pains after 
this life, from whence there was release, how 
can any one say, without presumption, that the 
being of a third place is contrary to the word 
of God ? Neither can the antiquity of this doc- 
trine be more justly called in question, of which 
is found so early mention, not only by this 
holy Father, but by divers others his predeces- 
sors, who came not long after the apostles, and 
were the best witnesses of their doctrine. And 
as for the reasonableness of this tenet, his reason 
convinces him — 1st. That every sin, how slight 
soever, though no more than an idle word, as 
it is an offense to God, deserves punishment from 
him, and will be punished by him hereafter, if 
not cancelled by repentance here. 2d. That 
such small sins do not deserve eternal punish- 
ment. 3d. That few depart this life so pure 
as to be wholly exempt from spots of this na- 



74 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

ture, and from every kind of debt due to God's 
justice. 4th. Therefore that few Vv 7 ill escape 
without suffering something from his justice for 
such debts which they have carried with them 
out of this world; according to that rule of 
divine justice, by which he treats every soul 
hereafter according to their works, and accord- 
ing to the state in which he finds them in death. 
Thus his reason convinces him that there must 
be some third place ; for, since the infinite good- 
ness of God can admit nothing into heaven which 
is not clean, and pure from all sin, both great 
and small, and his infinite justice can permit 
none to receive the reward of bliss, who as yet 
are not out of debt, but have something in jus- 
tice to suffer, there must of necessity be some 
place or state where souls departed this life, 
pardoned as to the eternal guilt or pain, yet 
obnoxious to some temporal penalty, or with 
the guilt of some venial faults, are purged and 
purified before their admittance into heaven. 
And this is what he is taught concerning pur- 
gatory, which, though he knows not where it 
is, of what nature the pains are, or how long 
each soul is detained there, yet he believes that 
those that are in this place, being the living 
members of Jesus Christ, are relieved by the 
prayers of their fellow -members here on earth, 
as also by alms and masses offered up to God for 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 75 

their souls. And for such as have no relations 
or friends to pray for them, or give alms, or pro- 
cure masses for their relief, they are not neg- 
lected by the Church, which makes a general 
commemoration of all the faithful departed in 
every mass, and in every one of the canonical 
hours of the divine office." (Pp. 43, 44.) 

We have omitted in the above quotation some 
of the references given by the author. 

These passages, taken from writers of the 
Romish Church, are sufficient to set forth in a 
true and satisfactory manner her views on this 
point, and a short review of them shall now be 
given. 

That from Cardinal Wiseman contains the fol- 
lowing points of doctrine : 1. Satisfaction by 
suffering. 2. Some sins are not sufficient to 
consign to the punishment of hell. 3. Many 
with the grace of God in them, and the pardon 
of sins written upon them, die without holiness 
sufficient to secure an immediate entrance into 
heaven. 4. There is a middle and temporary 
place named purgatory, where some individuals 
are for a time punished and purged. 5. The 
Church of Rome does not prove every one of 
her doctrines by the Scriptures. 6. Many doc- 
trines of the Romish Church are traditional. 
7. The Church cannot err in her teachings. 8. 
The doctrine of purgatory is founded upon tradi- 



76 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

tion and the infallibility of the Church. 9. Offer- 
ing prayers for the dead is a practice founded 
upon the belief in purgatory. 10. The doctrine 
of purgatory and that of praying for the dead 
stand or fall together. 11. The dead are bene- 
fited by the prayers of the living. 

That satisfaction can be made to justice by 
suffering, we deny. There is in sin an infinite 
and eternal demerit, and consequently we deny 
that some sins are not sufficient to consign to 
the punishment of hell. The least sin deserves 
the greatest wrath and severest punishment 
known to the law of God. That any, with 
the grace of God in them and the pardon of 
their sins written upon them, die without that 
holiness which secures admittance into the pres- 
ence of God, we deny. " The blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth from all sin." That there is 
such a place as purgatory, we of course deny, 
and therefore deny that any are punished and 
purged therein. We admit that the Church of 
Home teaches that many doctrines are to be 
taught and believed which cannot be proved, 
individually, from the Scriptures, but do not 
admit that she is right in this. We cannot 
receive any thing upon mere tradition, for we 
deny the authority thereof. We grant that the 
Church of Rome claims that she cannot err in 
her teachings, but we affirm that she can, and 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 77 

that she has erred and taught some of the most 
egregious falsehoods. That the doctrine of pur- 
gatory is founded upon tradition and the infal- 
libility of the Church, and upon no other au- 
thority, we admit. For aught we know, pur- 
gatory and praying for the dead stand or fall 
together — we think they fall together with tra- 
dition and the infallibility of Rome ! We deny 
that prayers, alms, and masses offered by the 
living do the dead any good. 

In the questions and answers which we have 
given from " The Catholic Christian 'Instructed," 
we have the following points of doctrine taught : 

1. Some few have so cleared all accounts with 
God, and so washed themselves in the blood 
of Jesus, as to go straight to heaven at death. 

2. Great numbers die under deadly guilt, and 
go straight to hell. 3. Many Christians die 
with some stains of sin upon them, and yet 
free from the guilt of deadly sin, and are, for a 
time, in a middle state called purgatory, and 
that they receive benefit from the prayers of 
living saints. 4. Scripture, tradition, the au- 
thority of the Church, and reason, all sustain 
the doctrine of purgatory. 

All true Christians, when they die, have re- 
ceived the pardon of all their sins, and have 
been washed in the fountain of Christ's blood 
from all defilements, and therefore go straight 



78 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

to heaven. All who die sinners, die under guilt 
and condemnation and in unholiness, and go 
straight to hell. The third and fourth points 
above given are therefore false. 

A brief summary of the paragraph from the 
last author contains the following: 1. There 
is a place called hell, in which there is no for- 
giveness, and some souls are sent directly into 
it, and shall never be released therefrom. 2. 
There is a place called heaven, where no sin 
can enter, and some souls, free from all sin, go 
directly into it. 3. In many cases some sins, 
at death, remain unpardoned and some defile- 
ments unwashed, which are too small and too 
slight to demand eternal punishment, and yet 
sufficient to keep the souls thus unpardoned 
and unwashed out of heaven, and to demand 
punishment from the justice of God. 4. There 
is a third place, called purgatory, in which this 
punishment will be inflicted, these sins forgiven, 
these defilements purged away, and the souls 
therein detained for punishment and purging will 
then be taken to heaven. 5. Prayers, alms, 
and masses offered by the living will relieve 
the dead, and it is the duty of friends, relatives, 
and the Church to offer these for the departed. 

That there is a hell, into which the uncon- 
verted and unpardoned are directly sent at death, 
nevermore to know release, is a solemn and 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 79 

awful truth. That there is a heaven, into which 
no sin can enter, and to which the righteous 
go immediately after death, is a sublime and 
soul -inspiring fact. But that Christians, who 
have been justified by faith, and renewed by the 
washing of regeneration, die under debt to God's 
justice and with the defilements of sin upon 
their hearts, is unfounded, unreasonable, unscrip- 
tural, and untrue. That there is a third place 
in the future state, where Christians are pun- 
ished, and w r ashed, and purged, and where sins 
are forgiven, and from whence persons emigrate 
to heaven, the Bible does not teach, and antiquity 
and priests can never prove. 

A farther investigation we reserve for succeed- 
ing chapters. 



80 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OF PURGATORY. 

Man is under bondage to sin — guilt is written 
against him — death has passed upon him — his 
whole nature is out of course — shame is upon his 
face — misery crowds upon his entire life — he is a 
child of the devil — an heir of hell! How can 
sin he removed, guilt canceled, and his nature 
made to flow back to God? How can he be 
made a child of God and an heir of heaven? 
These are questions of great moment : well may 
they engage the mind of man as they have en- 
gaged the mind of Deity ! The great and funda- 
mental question in theology is, How can man — 
guilty man — obtain forgiveness of sins and be 
saved ? Upon this the Christian world has been 
exercised, and in solving the problem, has com- 
mitted the most fatal blunders. In connection 
with this point — the forgiveness of sins — the 
Church of Rome holds doctrines which she con- 
nects with purgatory, and which, in order that 
our subject may be presented in a satisfactory 
manner, we shall have to discuss here. The 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 81 

doctrines which cluster around, point to, and 
find their completion in, purgatory, are so numer- 
ous and so grouped together, we scarcely know 
where or how to begin the investigation, or 
which to present first. 

Papists hold that penance is necessary to the 
forgiveness of sins — that priests and popes are 
the vicegerents of God, having authority to for- 
give sins — that God punishes sins after they are 
forgiven, both in this world and in the next — 
and that indulgences can be granted by priests, 
etc. All these points of doctrine, with others, 
they have connected with purgatory, closely and 
intimately, all of which we shall have to con- 
sider. Many of these doctrines, we confess, 
are set forth by Romish authors in. a confused 
and unsatisfactory manner. Many of these au- 
thors, as we shall have occasion to show, con- 
tradict themselves. That they hold the tenets 
above stated, we shall be able to demonstrate 
beyond a doubt from their own standards. That 
said tenets are absurd and false, we shall attempt 
to show in confident expectation of success. We 
shall take up first the subject of penance. It 
does not enter into our purpose, however, to 
give all the points in connection with this subject. 
We shall not stop to inquire as to whether it 
is a sacrament or not — though it certainly is 
not — but shall only examine the points in 



82 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

connection with the forgiveness of sins and pur- 
gatory. 

According to papists, penance consists in 
three parts : contrition, or sorrow ; confession, 
or its outward manifestation; and satisfaction. 
Each and all of these are essential to the for- 
giveness of sins. To the first part, viz., contri- 
tion, or sorrow, in and of itself, we have no ob- 
jection. That it is an essential element in 
repentance, that God commands all men every- 
where to repent, and that he w 7 ill not forgive 
sins without it, are Scripture doctrines. But we 
object to its being elevated into a sacrament, or 
a part of one, and of being connected with 
priestly absolution. To the second part, con- 
fession, or .the outward manifestation of sorrow 
to a priest for the forgiveness of sins, we object, 
as an infamous falsehood and diabolical evil. 
Papists deny that they profess to forgive sins, 
and, also, that they require confession to a priest 
in the manner attributed to them by Protestants. 
But they require, their denials and explanations 
to the contrary notwithstanding, confession to 
be made of every mortal sin to a priest in secret, 
and that after the individual making the con- 
fession has gone through a rigid preparation 
and examination of himself, and not only every 
sin, but the circumstances thereof. They claim 
that this confession was ordained by the law of 



THE STATE OE THE DEAD. 83 

God and by Jesus Christ to be necessary to 
salvation. These points we shall prove from 
their own authors. First, they require confession 
of sins to a priest. Speaking of what the Church 
believes and enjoins on this point, Cardinal Wise- 
man says : 

" She maintains, then, that the sinner is bound 
to manifest his offenses to the pastors of his 
Church, or rather, to one deputed and authorized 
by the Church for that purpose; to lay open 
to him all the secret offenses of his soul, to 
expose all its wounds, and, in virtue of the 
authority vested by our blessed Saviour in him, 
to receive through his hands, on earth, the sen- 
tence which is ratified in heaven, of God's for- 
giveness." (Lectures on the Principal Doctrines 
and Practices of the Catholic Church, Lecture 
x., p. 15.) In the same Lecture, p. 16, he 
says : "Allow me now to premise a few remarks 
on the aptness of such an institution as confes- 
sion for the ends for which we believe it ap- 
pointed." He then goes on to show T that it is, 

1. Most conformable to the wants of human nature. 

2. It is precisely in accordance with the methods 
always pursued by God for the forgiveness of sins. 

3. Such an institution is exactly consistent with the 
entire system of religion established through the new 
law. 

Dr. Challoner asks this cpestion, "Are Chris- 



84 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

tians, then, obliged to confess all their sins to the 
ministers of Christ ?" and answers, " They are 
obliged to confess all such sins as are mortal, 
or of which they have reason to doubt, lest 
they may be mortal; but they are not obliged 
to confess venial sins, because as these do not 
exclude eternally from the kingdom of heaven, 
so there is not a strict obligation of having 
recourse for the remission of them to the keys 
of the Church." (The Catholic Christian In- 
structed, pp. 120, 121.) Then he gives the 
following form of confession : " The penitent, 
having duly prepared himself by prayer, by a 
serious examination of his conscience, and a 
hearty contrition for his sins, kneels down at 
the confession-chair on one side of the priest, 
and making the sign of the cross upon himself, 
asks the priest's blessing, saying, c Pray, father, 
give me your blessing.' Then the priest blesses 
him in the following words : c The Lord be in thy 
heart, and in thy lips, that thou mayest truly 
and humbly confess all thy sins, in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. Amen.' After which the penitent says 
the Confiteor, in Latin, or in English as far as 
Mea Culpa, etc. ; and then accuses himself of all 
his sins, as to the kind, number, and aggravating 
circumstances ; and concludes with this or the 
like form : c Of these, and all other sins of 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 85 

my whole life, I humbly accuse myself; I am 
heartily sorry for them; I beg pardon of God, 
and penance and absolution of my ghostly 
father.' And so he finishes the Confiteor, ' There- 
fore, I beseech thee/ etc., and then attends to 
the instructions given by the priest, and humbly 
accepts the penance enjoined." (Pp. 125, 126.) 

The Rev. John Gother declares the belief of 
the Church thus : " The papist, truly represented, 
believes it damnable in any religion to make 
gods of men. However, he firmly holds that 
when Christ, speaking to his apostles, said — 
John xx. 22 — Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose 
sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose 
sins you shall retain, they are retained) he gave 
them and their successors, the bishops and priests 
of the Catholic Church, authority to absolve any 
truly penitent sinner from his sins. And God, 
having thus given them the ministry of reconcilia- 
tion, and made them Christ's legates — 2 Cor. v. 
18, 19, 20 — Christ's ministers, and the dispensers 
of the mysteries of Christ — 1 Cor. iv. — and given 
them poiver that zvhosoever they loose on earth, 
shall be loosed in heaven — Matt, xviii. 18 — he 
undoubtedly believes that whosoever comes to 
them making a sincere and humble confession 
of his sins, with a true repentance and a firm 
purpose of amendment, and a hearty resolution 
of turning from his evil ways ? may from them 



86 THE STATS 0E THE DEAD. 

receive absolution, by the authority given them 
from Heaven; and no doubt but God ratifies 
above the sentence pronounced in that tribunal ; 
loosing in heaven whatsoever is thus loosed ly them 
on earth" (The Papist Misrepresented and Truly 
Represented. Of Confession, pp. 21, 22.) 

It is certain, from these authorities, that the 
Mother, as she styles herself, enjoins as a duty 
confession to a priest, and that without this, 
there is never forgiveness. The sinner, after 
the most careful and laborious preparation, has 
to make confession of sins of every kind. That 
we may have some idea of this matter, we will 
copy a little from The Manual of Catholic Piety, 
a work by Rev. Wni. Gahan, professing to con- 
tain a selection of fervent prayers, pious re- 
flections, pathetic meditations, and solid instruc- 
tions, adapted to every state of life. It gives 
a catalogue of sins to be confessed : 1. " Sins 
against God." Under this head the individual 
is to confess sins committed in " Matters of 
Faith," " of Hope," " of Charity," " of Religion." 
2. " Sins against our Neighbor." In this he 
is to confess sins " In Thoughts, in Words, in 
Actions, in Omissions." 3. " Sins against Our- 
selves." Sins to be confessed under this head 
are committed " by Pride, by Avarice, by Envy, 
by Impurity, by Words, by Looks, by Actions, 
by Gluttony, by Sloth," Giving the devotee 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 87 

of auricular confession instruction on sins com- 
mitted against ourselves by Impurity, this little 
book contains this language : " In willfully dwell- 
ing upon, or taking pleasure in, unchaste thoughts. 
[N. B. The penitent must here mention whether 
these bad thoughts were entertained during a 
considerable time, and how long; whether they 
were accompanied with desires of committing 
the evil ; whether they caused irregular motions ; 
whether in a holy place; and finally, whether 
the objects of the sinful desires were single or 
married, kindred or relations, or persons conse- 
crated to God.]" (Pp. 66-73.) We forbear to 
trouble the reader with any thing farther from 
this work of Piety, though there is much more 
here as absurd and indecent as the above. 

But now where is the testimony that confession 
of sins should he made to a priest? There are 
certain texts brought forward to prove the power 
and authority of the priest to forgive sins. These 
are relied upon to prove this dogma of confes- 
sion. They shall be examined in the proper 
place. In addition to these passages, Num. v. 
6, 7, Matt. iii. 6, Acts xix. 18, James v. 16, are 
brought forward as proof-texts, which speak no 
uncertain language upon this point. These shall 
be examined here. 

" Speak unto the children of Israel, When a 
man or woman shall commit any sin that men 



88 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and 
that person be guilty; then they shall confess 
their sin which they have done; and he shall 
recompense his trespass with the principal there- 
of, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and 
give it unto him against whom, he hath tres- 
passed." (Num. v. 6, 7.) The ingenuity of 
priests is unsurpassed, and the cunning and 
sophistry of papists astonishing, but it will take 
more than a prophet's ken or a seer's vision to 
find the first syllable in this text concerning 
auricular confession. The law of God given 
to the Israelites secured to each individual cer- 
tain rights and interests. The law contained 
in the text before us required that if a Hebrew 
trespassed against his neighbor by invading these 
rights or injuring these interests, he should make 
confession thereof, and make amends by restitu- 
tion, etc. This text would go as far to show the 
immaculateness of the priesthood of Buddha, or the 
purity and beauty of the Hindoo mythology, as 
the abominable confession of the Church of Rome. 
"And were baptized of him in Jordan, con- 
fessing their sins." (Matt. iii. 6.) John the 
Baptist, living in the end of a dark and shadowy 
dispensation, was the messenger of a brighter 
day, the harbinger of a more glorious dispensa- 
tion. He heralded the speedy coming of the 
Messiah, a day of reformation, of baptism with 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 89 

the Holy Ghost and with fire. He preached 
repentance as the essential thing in the reception 
of the Messiah, who was to come suddenly to 
his temple and set up a kingdom of which there 
should be no end. In his special work of pre- 
paring the people for the kingdom of heaven at 
hand, he baptized them with water when they 
gave him evidence of their repentance. The 
citizens of Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all 
the region round about Jordan, were baptized 
by John, while the Pharisees and Sadducees 
were rejected by him. The evangelist merely 
states this fact, and gives the reasons why the 
former were baptized and the latter rejected. 
Those whom he baptized, when they asked bap- 
tism at his hands, acknowledged that they were 
sinners in need of the salvation of the coming 
Messiah. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not 
do this, but came wrapped in their own righteous- 
ness, boasting of their ancestry, claiming justifi- 
cation because of their relation to Abraham. 
They did not give the evidence of their repent- 
ance, and they were spurned by the forerunner 
of the Christ. In the confession made by these 
individuals whom John baptized, there is nothing 
akin to the Romish confession. Where is the 
evidence that this confession was made in secret ? 
or that it ivas a special naming of every sin ? or 
that it was made to a priest ? 



90 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

"And many that believed came and confessed, 
and showed their deeds." (Acts xix. 18.) Ac- 
cording to the history which is given in connec- 
tion with this verse, there were impostors w T ho 
attempted to practice exorcism in the name of 
the Lord Jesus in imitation of St. Paul. Amongst 
these, the sons of one Sceva attempted to cast 
out an evil spirit in the name of Jesus whom 
Paul preached. In this they w r ere defeated. 
The evil spirit refusing to acknowledge them, 
overcame them, prevailed against them, and they 
fled, wounded. This defeat of these impostors 
became notorious — it was known by the Jews 
and the Greeks dwelling at Ephesus, and was 
the occasion of magnifying the name of Jesus, 
and an argument which convinced many, causing 
them to believe in him. These individuals, w T hen 
they became thus convinced and believed in the 
Son of God, came and confessed- — not their sins 
— but their faith in Jesus. There is nothing 
said here about confessing sins — nothing about 
confessing them to a priest. Without a better 
foundation than this text — and it has no better 
—this heresy of Rome falls without even the 
semblance of support, and without a single thing 
upon which to catch. 

" Confess your faults one to another, and pray 
one for another, that ye may be healed." (James 
v. 16.) Here is a command given to Christians. 



THE STATE OF THE BEAD. 91 

The duty enjoined is to declare their errors or 
confess their faults to each other. This by no 
means partakes of the nature of this Romish 
sacrament. There is no command here to con- 
fess to the pastor, deacon, elder, presbyter, 
bishop, priest, pope, or any other officer or titled 
dignitary. But the confession enjoined here is 
a mutual confession — not of constraint — nor to 
procure the pardon of a priest. It is the duty, 
as it is the interest, of Christians in mutual 
confidence to make known to each other their 
failings and missteps, and in the unity of peace 
to defend, strengthen, and encourage each other. 
It is the Christian duty of every follower of 
Jesus, if he have wronged a brother, to make 
confession thereof to the brother wronged, and 
as far as possible to repair the damage. It is 
the duty of all sinners to make a public confes- 
sion of Jesus in the sacrament of baptism. 
Papists may translate, construe, and reconstrue 
this text, but it does not sustain their dogma 
of confession. The whole Bible may be searched 
as it has been, but nothing can be found therein 
supporting, or even excusing, the doctrine and 
practice of the Church of Rome in this matter. 
It is one of her absurd and impious tricks to 
enrich the priesthood and to enforce her abomi- 
nations. 

In extending the examination of this subject, 



92 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

a space must be devoted to absolution., as it is 
linked with confession, and certain scriptures 
relied on to prove the one are arrayed in support 
of the other. But what is absolution? If we 
understand its nature as held and defended by 
Catholics, it is a subject involving the most 
important points and the most stupendous con- 
sequences — such as the authority and work of 
the priesthood, the relations of the sinner to 
his God, and the conditions of his pardon and 
salvation. To place the subject before us in the 
quickest possible time and the clearest imagin- 
able light, we will let the papists instruct us, 
stating first, as briefly as possible, what we 
understand absolution to be, and what are the 
claims of Rome in conjunction therewith. As 
nearly as we can tell, absolution, according to 
the Church of Rome, is an ordinance in which 
the priest forgives the sins of contrite and con- 
fessing sinners. Priests teach that they can and 
do forgive sins, yet they would make you believe 
that they only profess to declare or pronounce 
that sins are forgiven, and not that they actually 
forgive them. Let the reader examine this pas- 
sage from one of their authors already quoted : 
"We believe that sin is forgiven and can be 
forgiven by God alone — we believe, moreover, 
that in the interior justification of the sinner, 
it is only God that has any part; for it is only 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 93 

through his grace as the instrument, and through 
the redemption of Christ as the origin of grace 
and forgiveness, that justification can be wrought. 
And, in fact, no fasting, no prayers, no alms- 
deeds, no work that we can conceive to be done 
by man, however protracted, however extensive 
or rigorous they may be, can, according to the 
Catholic doctrine, have the most infinitesimal 
weight for obtaining the remission of sin, or of 
the eternal punishment allotted to it. This con- 
stitutes the essence of forgiveness, of justifica- 
tion, and in it we hold that man of himself has 
no power." (Lectures on the Principal Doctrines 
and Practices of the Catholic Church. Lect. xi., 
p. 35.) No one, after reading this extract, would 
imagine that the author claimed the right and 
professed to have power to forgive sins, unless 
he should suppose him to be Grod. But by this 
very book from which this extract is taken, we 
will now show that both the author and his 
Church make this very claim. In his tenth 
lecture this high author says : 

" Now, after these remarks, which I trust will 
have prepared the way, I proceed to the grounds 
of our doctrine, that there is a power of forgiving 
sins in the Church, such as necessarily requires 
the manifestation even of hidden transgressions, 
and that it was so established by Christ himself. 

" The words of my text are the primary and 



94 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

principal foundation on which we rest. I need 
hardly observe that, as in the old law, a confes- 
sion or manifestation of sins was appointed 
among the means of obtaining forgiveness, so 
there are allusions, in the new, to a similar prac- 
tice, sufficient to continue its recollection with 
the early Christians, and make them conclude 
that Providence had not completely broken up 
the system it had till then pursued. They were 
told to confess their sins to one another. It is 
very true that this text is vague — it does not 
say, Confess your sins to the priest, nor to any 
private individual; although the mention of the 
priests of the Church, in the preceding verses, 
might naturally suggest the idea of their being 
a special party to the act. Farther, the words, 
' Confess your sins one to another,' seem to com- 
mand more than a general declaration of guilt, 
or the saying what even the most hardened 
sinner, when all around him are joining in it, 
will not refuse to repeat, 'I have sinned before 
God.' They seem to imply a more peculiar com- 
munication between one member of the Church 
and another. At any rate, they serve to prove 
that the manifestation of sin is not of modern 
date, and to refute the objection that there is 
nothing in the New Testament to show this 
natural, obvious method of obtaining relief, to 
exist in the law of Christ. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 95 

"But in the text which I have prefixed to 
this discourse, have we not something far more 
specific? Christ was not addressing his flock 
in general, but was giving a special charge to 
the apostles ; in other words, to the pastors of 
the Church; because I have before shown you 
that when a command was given to the apostles, 
not of especial privilege, such as that of working 
miracles, but one connected with the welfare 
and salvation of the flock, it became a perpetual 
institution, to be continued in the Church. What 
does he tell them ? ' Whose sins ye shall forgive, 
they are forgiven them ; and whose sins ye re- 
tain, they are retained.' Here is a power, in 
the first place, truly to forgive sins. For this 
expression, -'to forgive sins,' in the New Tes- 
tament always signifies truly and really to clear 
the sinner of guilt against God. ' Many sins are 
forgiven her,' says our Saviour of Magdalen. 
What does this mean? Surely that she was 
purged, cleansed from sin. Those who heard 
the words so understood them, for they said : 
' Who is this that forgiveth sins also ?' They 
considered the privilege which our Saviour here 
claimed as superior to the power which he really 
possessed, though this embraced the working of 
miracles. Such an idea could only have been 
entertained of the right actually to remit or 
pardon an offense against God. That it was 



96 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

so, and moreover that they attributed a correct 
meaning to his words, appears not only from 
the parable of a debtor, which he applied to 
her case, but by the words which he actually 
addressed to her ; for, first he said, ' Thy sins 
are forgiven thee ;' and then, c Go in peace' — 
words of comfortable assurance, which must have 
led her to believe that she was fully pardoned. 
Again, our Lord speaks to the paralytic as fol- 
lows : ' Be of good heart, son, thy sins are for- 
given thee.' Those who heard him in this case 
went farther than in the other, and c said within 
themselves, He blasphemeth' — they considered 
it an assumption of a privilege belonging to 
God alone; they understood his words in their 
primary, obvious meaning, of remitting sins com- 
mitted against the Almighty; and our Saviour 
confirms them in this interpretation by the words 
that follow : ' Which is easier to say, Thy sins 
are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk ? but 
that you may know that the Son of man hath 
power on earth to forgive sins,' etc. To c forgive 
sins,' therefore, signifies in the gospel to pardon, 
to absolve, or to cleanse the soul from sin. But 
all this reasoning is superfluous, if we treat with 
those who adhere to the Anglican Church; for 
their service for the Visitation of the Sick directs 
the clergyman to say, in the very words which 
we use, ' By his (Christ's) authority, I absolve 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 97 

thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.' 
" The apostles, then, and their successors, re- 
ceived this authority ; consequently, to them was 
given a power to absolve, or to cleanse the soul 
from its sins. There is another power also given 
— that of retaining sins. What is the meaning 
of this ? Clearly the power of refusing to for- 
give them. Now, all this clearly implies — for 
the promise is annexed, that what sins Christ's 
lawful ministers retained on earth, are retained in 
heaven — that there is no other means of obtaining 
forgiveness, save through them 5 for the forgive- 
ness of heaven is made to depend upon that which 
they give on earth ; and those are not to be par- 
doned there, whose sins they retain. Now, were 
a judge sent forth with this assurance, that 
whomsoever he should acquit, that person should 
go free ; but that any one to whom he should 
refuse pardon, should be considered as not for- 
given, would this not imply that no forgiveness 
was to be obtained except through him? And 
would not the commission otherwise be a nullity, 
an insult, and a mockery ? For, would it not be 
an insult and a mockery of his authority if an- 
other commission, totally unconnected with his 
tribunal, was at the very same time issued with 
equal power to pardon or punish delinquents, 
if there were other means of forgiveness over 
4 



98 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

which his award had no control? Not merely, 
therefore, a power to forgive sins is given in our 
commission, but such a power as excludes every 
other instrument or means of forgiveness in the 
new law. In fact, when Christ appoints any 
institution, for objects solely dependent on his 
will, that very fact excludes all other ordinary 
means. When he instituted baptism as a means 
of washing away original sin, that very institu- 
tion excluded any other way of obtaining that 
benefit. In still stronger manner, then, does the 
commission here given constitute the exclusive 
means of forgiveness in the ordinary course of 
God's dealings; for not only does it leave this 
to be deduced by inference, but, as we have seen, 
it positively so enacts, by limiting forgiveness in 
heaven to the concession of it here below by 
those to whom it is intrusted. 

" But what must be the character of that 
power? Can you suppose that a judge would 
be sent out with a commission to go through 
the country, so that all whom he sentenced 
should be punished accordingly, and those whom 
he acquitted should be pardoned; and under- 
stand that this discretionary power, lodged in 
his hands, could be properly discharged by his 
going into the prisons, and saying to one man, 
6 You are acquitted,' to another, 'You must be 
punished,' to a third, 'You I pronounce guilty/ 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 99 

and to a fourth, 'You I declare innocent/ with- 
out investigation in their respective cases, with- 
out having the slightest ground for passing sen- 
tence of absolution upon the one, or of condem- 
nation upon the other? Does not this twofold 
authority imply the necessity of knowing the 
grounds of each individual case? Does it not 
suppose that the entire cause must be laid before 
the judge, and that he must examine into it, and 
pronounce sentence consistently w T ith the evi- 
dence before him? And can we then believe 
that our Saviour gave this twofold office as the 
only means of obtaining pardon to the priests 
of his Church, and does not hold them bound 
to decide according to the respective merit of 
each case ? Does he not necessarily mean, that 
if the Church retain or forgive, it must have 
motives for so doing ? And how can we suppose 
these to be obtained, but by the case being laid 
before the judge ? And who is able to do that 
but the offender alone ? Therefore does the 
commission itself imply, that w T hoever seeks, 
through this only channel, forgiveness, must 
manifest the guilt which he has committed. He 
must bring the whole cause under the notice of 
his judge, and only upon his complete hearing 
can the proper sentence be pronounced. 

" This is the groundwork in Scripture of the 
Catholic doctrine, that sin is to be forgiven by 



100 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

the pastors of the Church, in consequence of the 
institution of Christ, who has herein appointed 
them as his judges, vicegerents, and ministers ; 
and that, to obtain this forgiveness, it is neces- 
sary to lay the case — in other words, all our 
transgressions — before him who is intrusted with 
the responsibility of the sentence pronounced." 
(Pp. 18-22.) 

Notwithstanding Cardinal Wiseman contradicts 
himself, we cannot mistake the nature, and use, 
and importance of absolution as here set forth 
by him. That his contradiction may be imme- 
diately before our eyes, let us group together 
as closely as possible a few sentences from the 
above quotations. a There is a power of forgiving 
sins in the Church." Christ was giving a special 
charge to the apostles. "What does he tell 
them? 6 Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are 
forgiven them; and whose sins ye retain, they 
are retained.' Here is a power, in the first place, 
truly to forgive sins" The apostles have power 
of retaining sins. " What is the meaning of this ? 
Clearly, the poiver of refusing to forgive them. Now 
all this clearly implies — for the promise is an- 
nexed, that what sins Christ's lawful ministers 
retained on earth, are retained in heaven — that 
there is no other means of obtaining forgiveness, save 
through them." " We believe that sin is forgiven 
and can be forgiven by God alone." This last 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 101 

sentence — how does it agree with the former 
ones? The infallibility of the Church, the au- 
thority of tradition, the power of popes, the 
rights of priests, the necessity of absolution, the 
benefits of indulgences, the saving work of pur- 
gatory, and all the rest may be talked of with 
eloquence, and clothed in the richest beauties 
of rhetoric, but can never reconcile them. When 
it is demonstrated that darkness is light, that 
nothing is something, that evil is good, that two 
bodies can occupy the same space at the same 
time, that God and the pope are one, contradic- 
tions may be reconciled, but not the language and 
teachings of this dignitary of Rome. 

The Rt. Rev. John Milner, a man of great 
authority with Romanists, may now be heard 
on this dogma. We cannot tell, however, why 
he is so much honored, and appealed to with so 
much confidence, unless it be for his glaring per- 
versions and unmitigated falsehoods. We have 
never read any author, Christian or infidel, who 
has so little regard for the truth. In his letter 
on Absolution from Sin, after referring to the 
representations given of the teachings of the 
Church of Rome, by Rev. C. De Coetlogan, 
Bishop Porteus, and others, and after telling us 
what the Council of Trent teaches, and trying 
to refute— if it can be called an attempt at refu- 
tation — the exposition given of John xx. 22, 23, 



102 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

by Bishop Porteus, in which he (Milner) heaps 
up a mass about Chillingworth, Luther, Luther- 
ans, the Church of England, Calvin, and others, 
holding and defending the Romish views and 
practice of confession and absolution, he gives 
us this language : 

" I have signified that there are other passages 
ot Scripture besides that quoted above from John 
xx., in proof of the authority exercised by the 
Catholic Church in the forgiveness of sins ; such 
as Matt. xvi. 19, where Christ gives the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven to Peter; and chap, 
xviii. 18, where he declares to all his apostles, 
'Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall 
bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and 
Avhatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be 

loosed in heaven/ 

I say nothing of the incalculable advantage it 
is to the sinner, in the business of his conversion, 
to have a confidential and experienced pastor to 
withdraw the veils behind which self-love is apt 
to conceal his favorite passions and worse crimes, 
and to expose to him the enormity of his guilt, 
of which before he had perhaps but an imperfect 
notion, and to prescribe to him the proper reme- 
dies for his entire spiritual cure. After all, it 
is for the holy Catholic Church, with whom 
the word of Gocl and the sacraments, were de- 
posited by her divine spouse, Jesus Christ, to 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 103 

explain the sense of the former, and the con- 
stituents of the latter; and this Church has 
uniformly taught, that confession, and the priest's 
absolution, where they can be had, are required 
for the pardon of the penitent sinner, as well 
as contrition and a firm purpose of amendment." 
(The End of Religious Controversy. Pp. 251- 
253.) This author but corroborates what has 
before been said. 

A quotation from one other authority will 
suffice on this subject, in which it is treated in 
a clear and concise manner : 

" Q. How do you prove that the ministers 
of God have any such power as to absolve sin- 
ners from their sins ? 

"A. I prove it from St. John xx. 22, 23, 
where Christ said to his ministers, ' Receive ye 
the Holy Grhost: whose sins soever ye forgive, 
they are forgiven unto them; and whose sins 
soever ye retain, they are retained;' and St. 
Matt, xviii. 18, c Verily, I say unto you, whatso- 
ever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in 
heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, 
shall be loosed in heaven.' 

" Q. But was this power given to any besides 
the apostles ? 

"A. It was certainly given to them and to 
their successors to the end of the world, no less 
than the commission of preaching, baptizing, etc., 



104 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

which, though addressed to the apostles, was 
certainly designed to continue with their succes- 
sors, the pastors of the Church, for ever, accord- 
ing to that of Christ— Matt, xxviii. 20 — 'Lo, 
I am with you always, even till the end of the 
world.' And so the Protestant Church under- 
stands these texts, in the order for the Visitation 
of the Sick, in the Common Prayer-book, where 
she prescribes a form of absolution the same 
in substance as that used in the Catholic Church, 
viz., c Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left 
power to his Church to absolve all sinners who 
truly repent and believe in him, of his great 
mercy forgive thee thine offenses ; and by his 
authority committed to me, I absolve thee from 
all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.' 

u Q. Is it, then, your doctrine that any man 
can forgive sins ? 

"A. We do not believe that any man can for- 
give sins by his own power, as no man by his 
own power can raise the dead to life ; because 
both the one and the other equally belong to the 
power of God. But as God has sometimes made 
men his instruments in raising the dead to life, 
so we believe that he has been pleased to ap- 
point that his ministers should, in virtue of his 
commission, as his instruments, and by his power, 
absolve repenting sinners ; and as this is evident 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 105 

from the texts above quoted, it must be false 
zeal, under pretext of maintaining the honor of 
God, to contradict this commission which he has 
so evidently given to his Church. 

" Q. How do you prove that there is any com- 
mand of Christ for the confession of our sins to 
his ministers ? 

"A. I prove it from the commission which 
Christ has given to his ministers — St. John xx. 
22, 23 — c Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose- 
soever sins you remit, they are remitted unto 
them; and whosesoever sins you retain, they are 
retained.' And St. Matt, xviii. 18, ' Verily, I 
say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth, 
shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you 
shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.' 
For it is visible that this commission of binding 
or loosing, forgiving or retaining, sins, according 
to the merits of the cause and the disposition of 
the penitent, cannot be rightly executed without 
taking cognizance of the state of the soul of him 
who desires to be absolved from his sins by virtue 
of this commission, and consequently cannot be 
rightly executed without confession. So that we 
conclude, with St. Augustine, that to pretend 
that it is enough to confess to God alone, is 
making void the power of the keys given to 
the Church — St. Matt. xvi. 19 — that it is con- 
tradicting the gospel, and making void the com- 



106 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

mission of Christ." (The Catholic Christian In- 
structed, chap, ix., pp. 115, 116, 120.) 

The arguments of these authors are as false 
and illogical as their proof-texts are inconclusive. 
A brief examination will suffice to show how 
vain is their reasoning. "I need hardly observe 
that, as in the old law, a confession or manifesta- 
tion of sins was appointed among the means of 
obtaining forgiveness, so there are allusions in the 
new to a similar practice, sufficient to continue 
its recollection with the early Christians, and 
make them conclude that Providence had not 
completely broken up the system it had till then 
pursued." This is the reasoning of Cardinal 
Wiseman. Taking the case to which he evidently 
refers under the law, and the one to which he 
refers under the gospel, the statement stands 
thus, and the following would be his syllogism : 
Under the Mosaic law, when a man was guilty 
of certain things, he was required to confess 
that he had sinned, and to bring a trespass-offer- 
ing unto the Lord for his sin which he had 
sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid 
of the goats, for a sin-offering, and the priest was 
to make an atonement for him concerning his sin. 
Under the gospel dispensation, Christians are 
commanded to confess their faults to one another. 
Therefore, the system of ordinances, services, 
and duties, which were given and required under 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 107 

the law, are continued in force and required 
under the gospel. According to this conclusion, 
the priests should require their devotees to lead 
up their lambs and kids when they go to con- 
fession; and they should still enforce circum- 
cision, and perform all the priestly washings 
and sprinklings, and offer all the burnt-offerings 
and sacrifices which were performed and offered 
under the shadowy dispensation of Moses. But 
we know that Christ blotted out the handwriting 
of ordinances which was against us, and con- 
trary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing 
it to his cross. He abolished in his flesh even 
the law of commandments contained in ordi- 
nances. But of the syllogism which we have 
given as growing out of the argument of this 
Cardinal, it requires no uncommon vision to see 
that the conclusion does not follow from the 
premises. How the requirement of a certain 
thing in one age, and the command to perform 
something else in a succeeding age, justifies the 
conclusion that a system is continued unabol- 
ished from one dispensation to another, is what 
w^e cannot conceive upon any correct principles 
of reasoning. We repeat, however, in this con- 
nection, what we have before stated, that there 
was nothing under the lav/ of Moses akin to 
Romish confession. 

Again, speaking of the appointment of an in- 



108 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

stitution by Christ, lie says : " When he insti- 
tuted baptism as a means of washing away original 
sin, that very institution excluded any other way 
of obtaining that benefit." In the first place, 
Christ never instituted baptism as a means of 
washing away original sin. Water baptism, how- 
ever, or by whomsoever administered, washes 
away no sin, either original or actual. A man 
may receive baptism and still have all the de- 
pravity with which he was born, and remain 
under the guilt of his actual sins. On the other 
hand, he may be washed from his corruption and 
pardoned of his guilt, while as yet he has never 
had water applied to him in holy baptism. But, 
in the second place, even if baptism washes away 
original sin, and that alone, or that and all other 
sin, were it proven beyond the shadow of a doubt 
that Christ instituted it for this express purpose, 
other means of obtaining this benefit would not 
thereby be excluded. It would be one way; 
there might, nevertheless, be others of obtaining 
the same blessing. To give you an example 
exactly similar to this : suppose it to be proven 
most conclusively that pouring is a scriptural 
mode of baptism, this does not justify the con- 
clusion that there is no other mode of administer- 
ing it. Sprinkling may be another mode equally 
good and valid. 

From this you can see the force of this digni- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 109 

tary's arguments and the strength of his logic. 
They are totally worthless. 

But of the doctrine of these men, if there be 
any force in words, if any meaning in language, 
if there be such a thing as understanding the 
teachings of an author, they have set up a claim 
to the vicegerency and judgeship of the Al- 
mighty, and have arrayed before us their scrip- 
tures in support of the same. We shall now 
diligently apply ourselves to the examination 
of these portions of the divine record. In the 
exposition of isolated texts, they must be inter- 
preted so as to make them consistent with them- 
selves and the plain meaning and general tenor 
of the Bible. Sectarians and blind devotees of a 
creed, in the support of their dogmas, violate this 
rule and pervert the Scriptures, making the Bible 
little more than an absurdity. Ignoring their 
example, and pursuing truth in the light of 
revelation, we hope to find and bring out the 
true meaning and correct teachings of these texts, 
and to show that they agree with the well- 
authenticated doctrines of the gospel. It is a 
recognized fact that "sin is forgiven, and can 
be forgiven, by God alone." These and all other 
texts must be interpreted according to this re- 
cognized fact. In the order in which these 
champions of popish authority have given their 
proof-texts, the first is John xx. 22, 23 : "And 



110 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

when he had said this, he breathed on them, and 
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : 
whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
they are retained." Jesus had the apostles under 
a course of instruction from the commencement 
of his ministry. He did not send them out to 
build and establish a Church until he had taught 
them the principles of the kingdom of heaven 
and endued them with knowledge from on high, 
After his death and resurrection, he appeared in 
their midst, bade his peace upon them, and 
breathed upon them the Spirit of inspiration. 
These were the graduating exercises in which 
they were clothed with authority and sent forth 
to preach and teach. They were to publish the 
gospel, write it, expound it, and enforce it. In 
this they were to declare the conditions of par- 
don, preaching repentance for the remission of 
sins. The words of their commission ran thus : 
" Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptiz- 
ing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you • and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
end of the world." This commission contains 
the whole, and explains all these texts so con- 
fidently relied on by those who profess to sit 
in a higher than Moses's seat. It contains all 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. Ill 

that is contained in the terms remit and retain, 
and even papists themselves do not give it in 
proof of their doctrine. 

The next given is Matt. xvi. 19 : "And I will 
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on 
earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
heaven." When the degree of LL.D. was con- 
ferred upon a man by the Jews, there was de- 
livered to him a key. This was the badge of 
his office and the token of his authority to open 
and expound the law. In reference to this cus- 
tom, Jesus gave to Peter here, and the other 
apostles, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 
He gave them herewith authority to open the 
gospel dispensation to the nations, and to enforce 
the precepts under the same. Peter, bearing the 
keys in the exercise of his authority, opened the 
kingdom of heaven to the Jews on the day of 
Pentecost — Acts ii. — and to the Gentiles in the 
house of Cornelius — Acts x. The apostles 
opened the kingdom of heaven to Jews and 
Gentiles, and admitted within the pale of the 
Church and to the ordinances of the same those 
who complied with the conditions, and rejected 
those w T ho did not. 

The third and last text is Matt, xviii. 18 : 
" Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall 



112 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and 
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be 
loosed in heaven." This is a declaration of 
authority in connection with Church censures. 
The apostles were the inspired pastors of the 
Church, and as such, were given the right to 
bind upon those who were found guilty of in- 
subordination to the Church, and of disregard 
of the rights of their brethren, the penalties 
due their offenses, and loose them from the same 
when repentance and reformation on the part 
of the offender would justify it. Ecclesiastical 
penalties can go no higher than excommunica- 
tion, and extend no farther than the lifetime 
of the offender, and can exclude from the visible 
Church alone. The sin for which the penalty 
is inflicted, if not repented of and forgiven 
by Grod, will remain whether the priests re- 
move the disabilities and penalties which they 
have inflicted or not, and will exclude from the 
spiritual Church here and from the kingdom of 
heaven hereafter. If the sin is repented of, 
God will forgive it, and then the penalties im- 
posed by the priest will be as weak in their 
effects as were the cords with which Samson 
was bound. The bringing of Church censures 
and the infliction of Church penalties are for 
the protection and vindication of the honor of 
the Church, and the curing and saving of the 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 113 

offender, and, as such, they have their place and 
benefits. They are the highest earthly penalties 
known. 

The practice of the apostles gives us the best 
and clearest exposition of these portions of 
Scripture. They used the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven — opened and shut, bound and loosed, 
remitted and retained, according to the authority 
vested in them by these texts — and yet never 
forgave, or attempted to forgive, sins, in a single 
instance during the whole course of their min- 
istry. 

Confession and absolution, as presented and 
defended by popery, we have weighed in the 
balances of the sanctuary, and tried in the cru- 
cible of the gospel, and found them wanting. 
They have proven utterly false and altogether 
foundationless. Therefore, purgatory, in so far 
as it depends on these for support, is without a 
vestige upon which to rest its claim. 

Dumb idols have never made a proclamation 
of pardon, and the worshipers of idols, pictures, 
relics, and saints cannot grant repentance and 
forgiveness of sins. But the God of Israel has 
proclaimed himself " The Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abund- 
ant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, 
and sin, and that will be no means clear the 



114 THE STATE 0E THE DEAD. 

guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children, and upon the children's children 
unto the third and to the fourth generation." 
(Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.) This is his glory which 
he will not give to another, but reserves to him- 
self the authority to forgive sins. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 115 



CHAPTER VII. 

OF PURGATORY. 

Of the many streams opened by popery for 
supplying and supporting purgatory, there is 
none more vital to it than satisfaction, the third 
part of penance; for purgatory is nothing else 
than satisfaction for sins made by the dead in 
a future state. Cut off this stream by showing 
that it has no source in truth, and purgatory 
fails, just as the river fails when the fountains 
supplying it are dried up. This is the easy task 
which we now attempt. We do not object to the 
doctrine of satisfaction in the Divine government, 
as objected to by Socinians, Arians, and others, 
as will appear in the sequel of our investigation. 
That God had a right, when man, a moral agent, 
under moral government, sinned, to demand satis- 
faction to the claims of his violated law, and that 
Jesus Christ expiated sins and satisfied the law, 
making it possible for God to be just and the 
justifier of the ungodly, is according to the 
Scriptures. But papal satisfaction, which consti- 
tutes an element in penance, is earthly, sensual, 



116 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

and devilish. Adhering to the method which Ave 
have pursued on previous points, we shall present 
this doctrine in the language of its advocates. 
First, hear Cardinal Wiseman : 

" Now, let us come to the remaining part of 
the sacrament. We believe that upon this for- 
giveness of sins, that is, after the remission of 
that eternal debt, which God in his justice awards 
to transgressions against his law, he has been 
pleased to reserve a certain degree of inferior or 
temporary punishment, appropriate to the guilt 
which had been incurred ; and it is on this part 
of the punishment alone that, according to the 
Catholic doctrine, satisfaction can be made to 
Gocl. What the grounds of this belief are, I 
will state just now. At present, I wish to lay 
down the doctrine clearly and intelligibly ; that 
it is only with regard to the reserved degree 
of temporal punishment that we believe the 
Christian can satisfy the justice of God. But 
is even this satisfaction any thing of his own? 
Certainly not; it is not of the slightest avail, 
except as united to the merits of Christ's passion, 
for it receives its entire efficacy from that com- 
plete and abundant purchase made by our blessed 
Saviour. Such is our doctrine of satisfaction, 
and herein consists that self-sufficiency, that 
power of self-justification, which has been con- 
sidered sufficient to account for the Catholic's 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 117 

subjecting himself to the painful work of repent- 
ance imposed upon him by his religion. 

"But, after all, the whole of the question 
necessarily rests on this consideration : Is it 
God's ordinance that when he has forgiven sin, 
and so justified the sinner as to place him once 
more in a state of grace, he still reserves the 
infliction of some degree of punishment for his 
transgressions ? We say, that undoubtedly it is ; 
and I would appeal, in the first instance, to the 
feelings of any individual ; nor do I believe there 
is any one, however he may think himself in a 
state of grace before God — however he may 
flatter himself that his sins are taken away — 
who will not answer the appeal." (Lectures on 
the Principal Doctrines and Practices of the 
Catholic Church. Vol. II., Lect. xi., pp. 3o, 36.) 

A paragraph from the Ptev. John Gother may 
suffice on this subject : 

" The papist, truly represented, believes it 
damnable to think injuriously of Christ's passion. 
Nevertheless, he believes that though condign 
satisfaction for the guilt of sin, and the pain 
eternal due to it, be proper only to Christ our 
Saviour, yet that penitent sinners being re- 
deemed by Christ, and made his members, may 
in some measure satisfy by prayers, fastings, 
alms, etc., for the temporal pain which, by order 
of God's justice, sometimes remains due after 



118 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

the guilt and the eternal pains are remitted. So 
that trusting in Christ as his Redeemer, yet he 
does not think that by Christ's sufferings every 
Christian is discharged of his particular suffer- 
ings ; but that every one is to suffer something 
for himself, as St. Paul did, who by many tribu- 
lations, and by sufferings in his own flesh, filled up 
that which was behind of the passions of Christ ; 
and this not only for himself but for the whole 
Church — Col. i. 24 — and this he finds every- 
where in Scripture, viz., people admonished of 
the greatness of their sins, doing penance in 
fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, and by voluntary 
austerities, endeavoring to satisfy the divine jus- 
tice. And these personal satisfactions, God has 
also sufficiently minded him of, in the punish- 
ment inflicted on Moses, Aaron, David, and in- 
finite others ; and even in the afflictions sent 
by God upon our own age, in plagues, ivars, fires, 
persecutions, rebellions, and such like ; which few 
are so atheistical, but they confess to be sent 
from heaven for the just chastisement of our sins, 
and which we are to undergo, notwithstanding 
the infinite satisfaction made by Christ, and with- 
out any undervaluing it. Now, being thus con- 
vinced of some temporal punishments being due 
to his sins, he accepts of all tribulations, whether 
in body, name, or estate, from whencesoever they 
come, and with others of his own choosing, offers 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 119 

them up to God for the discharging of this debt ; 
still confessing that his offenses deserve yet more. 
But these penitential works he is taught to be no 
otherwise satisfactory, than as joined and applied 
to that satisfaction which Jesus made upon the 
cross; in virtue of which alone all our good 
works find a grateful acceptance in God's sight." 
(Papist Misrepresented, pp. 24, 25.) 

Whatever confusion may be seen in these para- 
graphs, and whatever mists may envelop their 
authors, there is no mistaking their teachings. 
They hold that God, after he has forgiven sins, 
punishes them, and requires satisfaction to be 
made for the sins pardoned by the individuals 
acquitted, with tears, prayers, fastings, and alms- 
deeds. 

The first objection to this theory is that it de- 
tracts from the expiation made for sins by the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and denies the efficacy and 
sufficiency of the satisfaction made to the divine 
law by the Son of God in his death. In the 
extracts above given, there is seen a manifest de- 
sire and effort to deny this. Their authors boast 
of a high regard for the passion of Christ. But 
however great may be the estimate placed by the 
papist upon the passion of Jesus, he does not 
admit its sufficiency to remove all guilt and pun- 
ishment from the sinner. This feature of his 
doctrine and faith cannot be changed by a mere 



120 THE STATE 0E THE DEAD. 

assertion or empty profession. An author's de- 
nial of a point, whether he disguises, ornaments, 
or simplifies the denial, avails nothing while he 
continues to assert the point and labors inde- 
fatigably to prove it. While Cardinal Wiseman 
tries to relieve himself of the charge of detract- 
ing from the expiation of Jesus, by saying that 
the satisfaction made by the Christian, for which 
he contends, is not any thing of his* own, he 
fastens it upon himself by teaching that it avails 
as united-— mark the expression — to the merits of 
Christ's passion. What is this but that it adds 
to and completes the merits and work of Christ's 
passion? Had he, aside from all figure of speech, 
been trying to express himself in the purest and 
simplest language, he could not in a more em- 
phatic manner have declared that he believed the 
expiation and satisfaction of Jesus insufficient, of 
and by itself, to remove guilt, and pain, and pun- 
ishment. Gother, like Wiseman, would relieve 
himself and his Church from the charge of indif- 
ference to the satisfaction made by Christ for 
sins. But he says the papist does not think that 
by Christ's sufferings every Christian is discharged 
from his particular sufferings ; but that every one 
is to suffer for himself, etc. Again, he says, 
" But these penitential works he is taught to be 
no otherwise satisfactory, than as joined and ap- 
plied to that satisfaction which Jesus made upon 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 121 

the cross." He expresses the very same thing 
by "joined and applied to that satisfaction which 
Jesus made upon the cross/' that Wiseman ex- 
presses by " united to the merits of Christ's pas- 
sion." 

God, as the author and administrator of his 
moral government; could not repeal the claims of 
the law, neither could he remove the penalty 
attached to its violation without satisfaction. 
But moved by love and guided by wisdom, while 
he was governed by justice, he found for man 
a substitute; not in the precious metals, and 
jewels, and gems of earth ; not in the freights of 
earth's navies ; not in the wealth of earth's king- 
doms ; not in hecatombs ; for all of these com- 
bined, with ten thousands of rivers of oil, cannot 
expiate one sin. Neither was this substitute 
found in the prayers, fastings, or other deeds of 
sinful men ; for all the prayers, and fastings, and 
humiliations, and alms-deeds, and tears, and sighs, 
and groans, and sufferings, and agonies, and 
deaths of all the apostles, and martyrs, and 
saints, and priests, and popes, can never satisfy 
the least sin committed against God's law. But 
the substitute was found in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, for " Surely he hath borne our 
griefs, and carried our sorrows ; yet we did esteem 
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But 
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was 



122 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of 
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes 
w T e are healed. All we like sheep have gone 
astray; we have turned every one to his own 
way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
of us all." (Isa. liii. 4-6.) "For he hath made 
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." (2 Cor. 
v. 21.) It was necessary that Christ, as our sub- 
stitute, should die, and he did die, to expiate sin 
and redeem sinners from the curse of the law. 
" It is expedient for us, that one man should die 
for the people, and that the whole nation perish 
not." (John xi. 50.) "For when we were yet 
without strength, in due time Christ died for the 
ungodly." (Rom. v. 6.) "For Christ also hath 
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
he might bring us to God, being put to death in 
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." (1 Pet. 
iii. 18.) " Christ hath redeemed us from the 
curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; for 
it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on 
a tree." (Gal. iii. 13.) "For then must he often 
have suffered since the foundation of the world ; 
but now once in the end of the world hath he 
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
self." (Heb. ix. 26.) Through Jesus alone atone- 
ment is made for sins and satisfaction rendered to 
the divine law. "And having made peace through 
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 123 

things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they 
be things in earth or things in heaven." (Col. i. 
20.) "And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John i. 7.) " Being 
justified freely by his grace> through the redemp- 
tion that is in Christ Jesus : whom God hath set 
forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his 
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remis- 
sion of sins that are past, through the forbearance 
of God ; to declare, I say, at this time his right- 
eousness : that he might be just, and the justifier 
of him which belie veth in Jesus." (Rom. iii. 24— 
26.) Whatever the authority of the Church may 
impose, or tradition teach, the Bible declares that 
this expiation and atonement made by Jesus 
Christ, in his death upon the cross, is "a full, 
perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satis- 
faction for the sins of the whole world." "And 
he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." (1 John ii. 2.) "But this man, after he 
had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat 
down on the right hand of God ; from henceforth 
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever 
them that are sanctified." (Heb. x. 12-14.) "And 
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
from all sin." (1 John i. 7.) 

With this sacrifice and redemption provided in 



124 THE STATE OF THE BEAD. 

Christ Jesus, the offers of pardon and the invita- 
tions of the gospel are full and free. " Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, 
and he will have mercy upon him; and to our 
God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isa. Iv. 7.) 
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, 
buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price." (Isa. Iv. 1.) 
The Son of God, sitting upon the mediatorial 
throne, orders the following true and faithful 
words to be committed to writing to be published 
throughout all time : " I am Alpha and Omega, 
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him 
that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life 
freely T (Rev. xxi. 6.) The sacred canon almost 
closes with this language: "And the Spirit and 
the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth 
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely T (Rev. xxii. 17.) The sinner who has 
accepted these invitations, and tasted of the good 
word of God, and of the powers of the world to 
come, can join with the Psalmist in ascriptions of 
praise to the Father of all spirits and of all mer- 
cies, saying, " Bless the Lord, my soul ; and 
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless 
the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his bene- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 125 

fits : who forgiveih all thine iniquities ; who healeth 
all thy diseases ; who recleemeth thy life from 
destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving-kind- 
ness and tender mercies ; who satisfieth thy 
mouth with good things ; so that thy youth is 
renewed like the eagle's." (Ps. ciii. 1-5.) 

This expiation of Christ is the only satisfaction 
for sins, whether committed before or after baptism; 
whether committed by the unpardoned sinner, or 
the justified and baptized Christian. John, as if 
writing in refutation of this papal novelty, that 
satisfaction must be made for sins committed 
after baptism, by repentance, prayers, fastings, 
alms, etc., says, " My little children, these things 
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any 
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 Johnii. 1.) Thus 
he directs these children of God to no satisfaction 
which they can render by deeds of piety and 
charity, in case they sin, but to Jesus Christ, 
their advocate and propitiation. 

The falsehood of this papal theory of human 
satisfaction is apparent when we consider what 
every tyro in theology should know, that obedi- 
ence to God's law, or compliance with the condi- 
tions which it imposes, can never satisfy or 
expiate sins previously committed, whether for- 
given or unforgiven. 

And, by the way, we remark that satisfaction 



126 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

and obedience are not synonymous terms, nor one 
and the same thing. Satisfaction is recompense, 
amends, atonement, expiation. Obedience is com- 
pliance with an injunction, or prohibition, or known 
law and rule of duty prescribed or enjoined by 
authority. 

God, having right and authority, has enjoined 
upon man obedience to his law, and it is the duty 
of man, as the creature of God, constantly to 
comply with the injunction. As a duty, obedience 
admits of no supererogation. There is no such 
thing in moral or civil governments as expiating 
crime by obedience to law. Suppose a citizen 
should outrage law and society by committing 
highway robbery ; can his obedience after this to 
the law which prohibits theft appease the past 
offense ? Nay, verily. In like manner, there 
can be no such thing as appeasing the wrath of 
God against an offense, and expiating its guilt, and 
removing its punishment, by an after obedience 
however perfect. This being true, it is certain 
that compliance with the conditions or terms 
which God has imposed upon man in the covenant 
made with him, cannot satisfy for past sins, 
neither are they imposed upon man by a cove- 
nant-making God for such ends. 

The Almighty has made the forgiveness of 
sins and the regeneration of the natural heart 
dependent upon the repentance and faith of the 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 127 

sinner — these are imposed upon him as conditions 
of his salvation. He has commanded the sinner 
to repent of his sins and believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, not that repentance and faith ex- 
piate guilt, but they are the conditions upon 
which the sinner accepts the satisfaction already 
made by a crucified Jesus. We would not be 
understood as expressing opposition to that 
wholesome and comforting doctrine that "we are 
justified by faith only." We do not mean to say 
that man is justified by faith and repentance 
united, for it is not true. But it is true that both 
faith and repentance have their proper places, 
and in their places are necessary. "Without 
faith it is impossible to please God," and " Except 
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 

Again, the works and services of the Christian 
are no more expiatory than the repentance and 
faith of the sinner. The Christian, justified and 
regenerated as he is, should search the Scriptures, 
pray, fast, afflict his soul, attend the assembly of 
the saints, engage in divine service, support and 
aid the Church by his influence, labors, and 
wealth, and relieve and comfort the poor and dis- 
tressed, etc.; but these are only duties enjoined, 
and means of grace afforded by the God of all 
grace for the accomplishment of good in the 
world, and the cultivation of the graces and the 
growth of piety in the Christian's heart, and not 



128 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

to expiate sins already pardoned. This is a point 
upon which we insist. There can be given no 
portion of Holy Writ showing that a faithful and 
steadfast Christian is commanded to repent, or 
pray, or fast, or give alms, or do any thing else 
in order to remove the guilt or temporal punish- 
ment of pardoned sins. There are instances given 
in the Bible where Jehovah calls backsliders and 
apostates to repentance, and prayers, and fastings, 
and reformation, in order to obtain the forgiveness 
of sins which they had committed, of which they 
had not repented, and which had not been par- 
doned. Whether God enjoins a duty or imposes 
a work upon the true and faithful Christian, it is 
for doing good to others, by carrying the life- 
giving gospel, with its benefits, to them, or for the 
perfecting of holiness in the Christian's own soul. 
Guilt, when once incurred, is eternal, unless it 
is pardoned. God has nowhere promised to par- 
don sin for the sake, or on account of, the punish- 
ment endured by the sinner punished, whether 
that punishment be short or long, in time or 
eternity, on earth or in hell, or any other place. 
As works of obedience cannot, as above shown, 
expiate sin and atone for guilt, so neither can 
punishment. Should God punish the sinner in 
this life to the greatest extent — make all his 
labor vain — thwart all his schemes — bring him to 
the greatest poverty— cover him with the grossest 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 129 

shame — deprive him of his wife and children, and 
all family ties and pleasures — fill him with all 
physical pains and sufferings, and with all mental 
agonies and moral tortures — churn him like milk 
and curdle him like cheese — all this could not 
satisfy, in the least degree, for sin, nor atone for 
its guilt. The greatest, severest, and most terri- 
ble punishment known to the divine justice, en- 
dured by man, can never exterminate sin, nor 
remove guilt, nor terminate justice. Have not 
the angels which kept not their first estate, suf- 
fered punishment severer than was ever endured 
by mortal man, or than can be inflicted upon him 
in this life, or in the purgatory of the Church of 
Rome? and yet do they not wait for fiercer pains 
and a heavier doom, " reserved in everlasting 
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the 
great day"? No man, however versed in human 
lore, or instructed in things divine, can bring the 
least authority from the revelation of Grod for 
deriving satisfaction for guilt from punishment, 
except that punishment which never ends. When 
a sinner shall have satisfied the claims of God's 
violated law against himself by enduring punish- 
ment, he will have borne that punishment for ever. 
This being true, the papal theory of satisfying a 
remaining debt of guilt by temporal punishment 
and purgatorial fire, is more fictitious than the 
tales of the Arabian Nights. 
5 



130 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

Should we conduct our readers through a beau- 
tiful landscape where they could feast their eyes 
upon extensive and extended scenery, inspiring 
in its effects, or over some mountain whose lofty 
peaks, snow-capped summits, towering rocks, and 
moss-clad cliffs would fill them with wonder, awe, 
and reverence, giving them conceptions of the 
grand and sublime, they would doubtless be 
pleased and entertained — to delight and entertain 
them is our desire — but we must conduct them 
along that path which the subject naturally 
marks out, though it be over the sterile way of 
a dry logic, and the monotonous road of a dull 
argumentation. If we shall fail to carry our 
readers upon imagination's wing, and paint to 
their fancy pictures and portraits, beautiful, rare, 
and perfect, we hope we shall at least retain their 
attention, and instruct and benefit them. 

That God punishes sins after he has pardoned 
them, and that he punishes them to render satis- 
faction, and to cancel a debt of guilt still remain- 
ing, we think already refuted, but we will still 
pursue the subject by examining the cases pre- 
sented by popery in proof of its doctrine. This 
papal dogma of satisfaction arrays in its support 
the punishment of Moses and Aaron for their 
conduct at the water of strife, the punishment of 
David for his conduct toward Uriah, and in 
numbering the people, and the visitation of 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 131 

wars, plagues, famines, etc. Of these in their 
order. 

It was the desire of Moses, the renowned 
leader of Israel's hosts, to go over with the 
people of God into the land of Canaan, and to 
see them settled therein. But this desire, 
natural, noble, patriotic, and pious as it was, he 
was not permitted to gratify. The congregation 
of Israel, on reaching Kadesh in the desert of 
Zin, found themselves afflicted with a total desti- 
tution of water. In this condition, they became 
furious and mutinous. They set themselves in 
strife against Moses and Aaron. They expressed 
regret unto death that they had come out of 
Egypt. Amidst this dissatisfaction, strife, and 
mutiny, Moses and Aaron retired from the con- 
gregation and repaired to the door of the taber- 
nacle. Here God instructed Moses. He directed 
him to take the rod which he carried with him, 
and gather together the assembly and speak to 
the rock before their eyes, and there would come 
out of the rock water, and to take the water and 
give to the congregation and their beasts to drink. 
Moses assembled the congregation, smote the 
rock, and water came forth. But in this trans- 
action he sinned. He became angry, spake un- 
advisedly with his lips, and did not sanctify the 
Lord God before the people. For this sin he was 
prohibited the privilege of entering the land of 



132 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

Canaan, and leading and settling the children of 
Israel therein. It was a law given by Jehovah 
to the Israelites that they should sanctify the 
Lord God and glorify him. This Moses, on the 
occasion here given, failed to do. As he acted 
thus in his official station, God deposed him from 
his office of leading his people, and would not 
revoke the decision. It was right and necessary 
that God should interfere and show his displeasure 
at this trespass, for if the writer and adminis- 
trator of his law, and the general and leader of 
his people, was allowed to treat the law with 
indifference, and violate it with impunity, it 
w T ould give license and encouragement to the 
congregation of his people to do the same. 

Not to be farther tedious, the sum of the whole 
matter is, Moses committed a trespass at which 
God did not wink, and which he would not par- 
don without punishing it with a penalty due its 
nature and its merit. In all this there is nothing 
to vindicate the doctrine that God pardons sin 
and then punishes it in satisfaction for remaining 
indebtedness. There is nothing of the kind stated 
or inferred in all the record of the transaction. 

From this case we pass to the consideration 
of the punishment of David for his sin com- 
mitted in adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of 
Uriah. The history of this case is given in the 
twelfth chapter of 2 Samuel. It is thought that 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 133 

the thirteenth verse contains a declaration of the 
pardon of David's sin so far as the eternal guilt 
and pain were concerned. But on examination, 
Ave find no good evidence that his sin was par- 
doned in anywise before punishment was inflicted 
upon him in the death of the child. This being 
true, the case affords no aid and gives no comfort 
to the papal dogma. As authority for this posi- 
tion, we may give first a part of the comment of 
that learned divine and critical commentator, Dr. 
Adam Clarke, on this thirteenth verse : " Verse 
13. The Lord — hath put atuay thy sin.'] Many 
have supposed that David's sin was now actually 
pardoned, but this is perfectly erroneous : David, 
as an adulterer, was condemned to death by the law 
of God ; and he had according to that law passed 
sentence of death upon himself. God alone, 
whose law that was, could revoke that sentence, 
or dispense with its execution ; therefore Nathan, 
who had charged the guilt home upon his con- 
science, is authorized to give him the assurance 
that he should not die a temporal death for it : 
The Lord hath put atuay thy sin ; thou shalt not 
die. This is all that is contained in the assurance 
given by Nathan : Thou shalt not die that tem- 
poral death ; thou shalt be preserved alive, that 
thou mayest have time to repent, turn to Grod, 
and find mercy. If the fifty-first Psalm, as is 
generally supposed, was written on this occasion, 



134 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

then it is evident (as the Psalm must have been 
written after this interview) that David had not 
received pardon for his sin from God at the time 
he composed it ; for in it he confesses the crime 
in order to find mercy." 

In his comment on this thirteenth verse, the 
Rev. Joseph Benson has penned some notes 
which, for point, clearness, beauty, and sound- 
ness, are unsurpassed, and which we transcribe 
here as corroborative testimony. " David said — 
/ have sinned against the Lord — Overwhelmed 
with shame, stung with remorse, and oppressed 
with a dreadful sense of the divine vengeance, 
impending and ready to fall upon himself and 
his family, he could only give utterance to this 
short confession. How sincere and devout it 
was, what a deep sense he now had of his guilt, 
and from what a softened, penetrated, broken, 
and contrite heart, his acknowledgment pro- 
ceeded, we may see in the Psalms he penned on 
this occasion, especially the 51st. The Lord also 
hath put away thy sin — That is, so far as concerns 
thy own life. Thou shalt not die — As according 
to thy own sentence — ver. 5 — thou dost deserve, 
and mightest justly expect to do from God's 
immediate stroke ; though possibly thou mightest 
elude the law before a human judicature, or there 
should be no superior to execute the law upon 
thee. There is something unspeakably gracious 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 135 

in this sudden sentence of pardon, pronounced by 
the prophet in the instant of David's confession 
of guilt and humiliation before God, even if we 
consider it as only implying exemption from the \ 
stroke of temporal death, and the granting him ' 
space for repentance, and for making his peace 
with God, with respect to his spiritual and im- 
mortal interests. And this seems to be the true 
light in which we ought to view it. If the 
Psalm we have just mentioned was written after 
the event of Nathan's coming to him, as the title 
of it signifies, and as is generally allowed, it is- 
evident David did not yet consider himself as 
pardoned by God, or in a state of reconciliation 
with him. For in that Psalm we find, not any 
thanksgiving for pardon actually obtained, but 
several most fervent supplications and entreaties 
for it as a blessing not yet granted. It may, 
therefore, be true enough, as Dr. Delany sup- 
poses, that David's pardon was not obtained by 
the instantaneous submission which he expressed 
when he said, I have sinned ; but that a long and 
bitter repentance preceded it ; and yet, that able 
divine may be mistaken, as it seems evident from 
the whole narrative he is, in supposing that re- 
pentance took place before Nathan was sent to 
him. The sacred historian gives no intimation 
of David's being awakened to a proper sense of 
guilt, or of his being made truly penitent for it, 



136 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

till the application of Nathan's parable. Then, 
and not before, it appears, he began to feel the 
compunction and distress expressed in that and 
the 32d Psalm, during the continuance of which, 
day and night, God's hand was heavy upon him : 
his moisture ivas turned into the drought of summer, 
and his hones tuaxed old through his roaring all the 
day long. Some time after, but how long we are 
not told, he was made a partaker of the blessed- 
ness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, and 
whose sin is covered; and that on his own certain 
knowledge and experience; for he says, I said, I 
ivill confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and 
thou for gavest the iniquity of my sin." 

This plain, scriptural view of the case sets it 
forth destitute of a single feature in support of 
such principles as it is adduced to substantiate. 
The punishment inflicted upon David was not 
that temporal punishment due after eternal guilt 
and pain were extinguished, but it was simply 
the substitution of one penalty of temporal pun- 
ishment instead of another penalty of temporal 
punishment. Instead of David dying himself for 
his sin, the child born to him died, and the sword 
impending was drawn against his house for ever. 

But could it be demonstrated that David's sin 
was actually pardoned, so that the eternal guilt 
and the pains of a future retribution were no 
longer against him, still the case affords no pro- 



THE STATE OE THE DEAD. 137 

tection to the satisfaction scheme of Holy Mother 
Church. She tells us that the prayers, fastings, 
etc., of the offender satisfy the divine justice and 
remove the punishment due the offense. David, 
on this memorable, and to him, mournful occasion, 
prayed earnestly, fasted truly, and wept sorely, 
and yet justice was unappeasecl, and the punish- 
ment unmitigated. 

Men being no longer inspired, theologians and 
expositors, in their labors of teaching the gospel, 
and expounding the word of God, meet with 
many perplexing difficulties and profound mys- 
teries. The numbering of Israel by David, for 
which the wrath of God fell upon them, is a sub- 
ject which God has revealed but in part, and of 
which the wisest and best men must confess an 
imperfect knowledge. What was David's sin in 
numbering the people ? While this question has 
given rise to numerous conjectures, it is still 
unanswered, and will remain in uncertainty so 
long as we are destitute of farther inspired reve- 
lation on the subject. Whether his sin was pride 
and vainglory; or a violation of some definite 
precept; or an effort to number Israel, G-od 
having said that they should increase as the stars 
for multitude, innumerable; or whether it was 
with an intention of going to war without God's 
direction; or even something else, we cannot 
venture to say. To some minds, the statements 



138 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

given in the first verse of the twenty -fourth 
chapter of 2 Samuel, and in the first verse 
of the twenty -first chapter of 1 Chronicles, 
contain and present a difficulty, not to say con- 
tradiction, of no small proportions. The first 
text says, " The anger of the Lord was kindled 
against Israel, and he moved David against them 
to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." The 
second says, " Satan stood up against Israel, and 
provoked David to number Israel." Very often, 
when a nation's wickedness culminates, and God's 
anger will not permit the stroke to be longer 
delayed, God gives the rulers over to their own 
ways, and incites them to acts which will lead to, 
and terminate in, the punishment and destruc- 
tion of the people, and of their prosperity and 
happiness. On this occasion the nation of Israel 
had accumulated guilt until God's wrath could no 
longer refrain, and resolving to punish them im- 
mediately, he gave David their king over to the 
devices and power of Satan, while he also incited 
him to number the people, which transaction 
filled their cup of iniquity, and brought down the 
divine wrath. It may be borne in mind that in 
this instance, as already indicated, the king 
and his subjects were all guilty. While David 
only was responsible for numbering the people, 
his subjects had before, and in other actions, 
sinned to their own undoing. Other difficulties 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 139 

might be stated, but knowing that it would be 
labor without justifying results, we shall not 
attempt to grapple with the difficulties, and solve 
the impenetrable mysteries, which cluster around 
this portion of the history of David -and Israel. 
But while we leave these points untouched and 
unsolved, there are plain points in the case, the 
presentation of which will enable us to see that 
the doctrine of human satisfaction and the visita- 
tion of divine vengeance upon sins already par- 
doned, is not justified by the facts in the premises. 
"Whatever may have been the purpose of David 
in numbering Israel, whatever may have been the 
feature or features in the act which constituted it 
a sin and displeasing to God, and whatever may 
be the difficulties connected with the matter, 
David sinned a grievous sin, and the Almighty, 
already angry with Israel for their sins, took this 
occasion to punish them and their king. David 
having chosen to fall into the hands of Grod, and 
not into the hands of men, Grod punished him and 
Israel with three clays' pestilence, under the exe- 
cution of the destroying angel, granting no par- 
don and showing no favor until after the infliction 
of this terrible punishment. Look into the mat- 
ter ever so profoundly, descant upon it ever so 
eloquently, we defy any one to bring more than 
a bare assertion in connection with the numbering 
of Israel by David, in vindication and support of 



140 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

this hideously deformed dogma of bigoted and 
intolerant Rome. 

It is verily true that wars, famines, plagues, 
and pestilence are visited upon the generations of 
men in the present day; in fact, the history of 
the world is little more than the history of wars, 
famines, and pestilences. In every age the 
sword has drunk up the blood of nations, and 
the famine and the pestilence have wasted the 
substance, consumed the flesh, and terminated 
the lives, of earth's inhabitants, as in a moment. 
The statesman, historian, and naturalist will trace 
all these to their sources in political and natural 
causes; and while it requires no racy pen nor 
subtle logic to do this, it is true that God, who is 
the arbiter of nations and the disposer of events, 
and who dispenses his blessings at will, sends 
judgments upon men, in wars, famines, and pes- 
tilences. Upon this point we have no doubt — 
we enter no protest. God says, " I make peace, 
and create evil." u Shall there be evil in the city, 
and the Lord hath not done it?" The point 
which we controvert with these papists, who are 
wise above what is written, is the object and 
design of the infliction of these judgments. 
They contend that it is to satisfy a remaining 
debt of guilt due to justice after the sins are 
forgiven as to eternal guilt and pain. To this 
we demur. The judgments of God sent upon 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 141 

the rebellious and wicked, whether in wars, fam- 
ines, or other calamities, are sent as punishments 
for sins unremitted, and, in some instances, are 
designed to reform and lead to repentance, in 
which result the sins will be pardoned, not for 
the sake of the punishment endured, but because 
those punished forsake their sins and return to 
God. Nineveh affords an example of this kind. 
In other instances, these judgments are sent for 
destruction, in which case the punishment and 
guilt are unremitted both before and after the 
visitation. Such were Sodom and Gomorrah, 
and the nations destroyed in Canaan. The 
calamities, losses, sufferings, and afflictions visited 
upon the children of God, are for different de- 
signs in different cases ; but none of them, in any 
case, for the design attributed by our opponents. 
We have already mentioned backslidings and 
apostasies as being punished for the sins com- 
mitted, and unrepented of, and unpardoned. It 
is unnecessary to make farther reference to these. 
" Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," in some 
instances, to correct remaining evil tendencies in 
their hearts and lives ; and in other instances, to 
accumulate "a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory" upon them; in yet other in- 
stances, it is to give examples and displays of 
faith, integrity, and patience, such as the trial of 
Abraham in offering his son Isaac, and the afflic- 



142 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

tion of Job in the destruction of his property, 
the death of his children, and the filling of his 
body with sore boils. God, in his fatherly love, 
may take away the property and other blessings 
of some of his children to induce the exercise of 
a special Christian grace. He may reduce others 
to dependent circumstances to open the way for 
the exercise of benevolence on the part of some 
one else. Others he may permit to fall under 
heaviness, for a time, through manifold tempta- 
tions, that the trial of their faith may produce a 
manifest work of patience. Each and every one 
of these may be like Job, without sin. Job was 
a servant of God, a man that feared God and 
eschewed evil, a man who had a record with God 
on high that he was at peace with him, and clear 
from all debts of guilt. And yet the Christian 
Church has in Job an example of suffering and 
deliverance, of patience and integrity, unequaled 
in all the annals of her history, and doubtless 
for this purpose God dealt with him as he did. 

Our papal authors, in their fruitless search for 
something in the Bible supporting their theory, 
have made mention of the sufferings of Paul, and 
his filling up that which is behind of the afflic- 
tions of Christ. (Col. i. 24.) Surely when they 
resorted to this in proof, they were in despair, 
and next, being resolved to hold and disseminate 
the doctrine at all hazards, fled for refuse to an- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 143 

tiquity, tradition, fathers, councils, canons, and 
the Church ! The sufferings which Paul endured 
for the saints at Colosse, and other places, were 
in and through the persecutions and afflictions 
heaped upon him by the enemies of God and the 
gospel. They were so far from being the visita- 
tions of remaining indebtedness to justice, that 
they were wicked and ungodly visitations from 
wicked and ungodly men. These sufferings of 
Paul might be in addition to the afflictions Christ 
suffered in persecution, and might be good and 
essential for the Church, as through the labors 
for which these persecutions were inflicted, she 
was to plant herself in the different regions of the 
earth. But so far as adding to the passion of 
Christ, or completing the atonement of Jesus, 
such a thing never entered the mind of the in- 
spired apostle. 

Once more and finally, upon this head, the very 
nature of pardon disproves the theory against 
which we here contend. To pardon is not to 
commute or exchange one penalty for another, 
but it is to remit or remove the penalty alto- 
gether in full. Pardon is the release of the 
offender by the offended from the guilt and 
punishment of an offense. To cover sin, blot oat 
sin, not impute sin, and other terms of like im- 
port, are the Scripture phrases by which is con- 
veyed to us the nature of the subject. That the 



144 THE STATE OE THE DEAD. 

pardon which God pronounces contains and con- 
veys a full release from the guilt and punishment 
of the crimes forgiven, may be gathered from the 
following texts of Holy Writ, to which we might 
add others : "As far as the east is from the west, 
so far hath he removed our transgressions from 
us." (Ps. ciii. 12.) "And thou wilt cast all their 
sins into the depths of the sea." (Mic. vii. 19.) 
" I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgres- 
sions for mine own sake, and will not remember 
thy sins." (Isa. xliii. 25.) " For I will forgive 
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no 
more." (Jer. xxxi. 34.) "All his transgressions 
that he hath committed, they shall not be men- 
tioned unto him." (Ezek. xviii. 22.) "And by 
him all that believe are justified from all things, 
from which ye could not be justified by the law 
of Moses." (Acts xiii. 39.) Were we selecting 
from our mother tongue terms to convey to us 
the most decided assurance that sins are, when 
pardoned, consigned to oblivion, never more to 
condemn and pain us, we could select none better 
adapted to the purpose than the terms here em- 
ployed. Prom the following language of the Al- 
mighty to Ezekiel, "When I shall say to the 
righteous, that he shall surely live ; if he trust 
to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all 
his righteousness shall not be remembered; but 
for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 145 

die for it" — Ezek. xxxiii. 13 — and from our 
Saviour's parable of the two debtors — Matt, 
xviii. 23-35 — as likewise from other scriptures 
bearing upon the same point, w r e learn that a man 
may, after he has received grace and apostleship, 
apostatize by committing sin, and fall again under 
condemnation, but this does not affect the point 
above maintained. When God justifies the sin- 
ner, he gives him a full pardon of all sins against 
him up to the time of his justification, which 
pardon will, in case the sinner pardoned remains 
steadfast in faith and obedience to the end, stand 
for ever unrepealed and unrevoked. 



146 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

OF PURGATORY. 

Having intrenched herself in her own au- 
thority, and having attempted to fortify herself 
with the materials of antiquity, the Romish 
Church has stored her armory with passages 
from the apocryphal and inspired writings with 
which to fight, and, if possible, vanquish Prot- 
estants. But calm and undismayed, Protestants 
oppose her in her intrenchments and fortifications, 
knowing that in this contest about the doctrines 
of Christianity, the passages arrayed against 
them are, in the hands of their enemies, point- 
less and harmless. To the examination of these 
passages relied on to establish this cunningly- 
devised fable of purgatory, we shall devote the 
present chapter. 

The first text presenting itself for examination 
is one which every Catholic, from the pope down 
to the most obscure Irishman, will array in justi- 
fication of the practice of praying for the dead, 
and as establishing, beyond the shadow of a doubt, 
the existence of a purgatory. The passage is as 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 147 

follows : "And when lie had made a gathering 
throughout the company to the sum of two 
thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Je- 
rusalem to offer a sin-offering, doing therein 
very well and honestly, in that he was mindful 
of the resurrection ; for if he had not hoped that 
they that were slain should have risen again, it 
had been superfluous and vain to pray for the 
dead." (2 Mac. xii. 43, 44.) Giving this passage 
all the authority of inspiration, it by no means 
justifies the practice of praying for the dead, and 
in no degree demonstrates the existence of pur- 
gatory, as we shall attempt to show before we 
dismiss it. But to this quotation we urge a grave 
objection independent of this ; it is no part of 
inspired truth. Catholicism, it is true, claims the 
book of Maccabees as an inspired record belong- 
ing to the sacred canon. The Council of Trent 
legislated it such. This position of popery, with 
all the legislation on the subject, is not only des- 
titute of evidence to substantiate it, but the 
testimony of those in circumstances to know the 
truth in the premises, refutes it most conclu- 
sively. Josephus, the Jewish historian, gives us 
an account of the books acknowledged by the 
Jews as belonging to the sacred writings. He 
not only leaves this book of Maccabees out of the 
number embraced in the Jewish Scriptures, but, 
in our judgment, he pronounces it an uninspired 



148 THE STATE OF THE DEAD, 

history. Here is what he says : " For we have 
not an innumerable multitude of books among us, 
disagreeing from and contradicting one another, 
[as the Greeks have,] but only twenty-two books, 
which contain the records of all the past times ; 
which are justly believed to be divine ; and of 
them, five belong to Moses, which contain his 
laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind 
till his death. This interval of time was little 
short of three thousand years ; but as to the 
time from the death of Moses till the reign of 
Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who reigned after 
Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, 
wrote down what was done in their times in 
thirteen books. The remaining four books con- 
tain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct 
of human life. It is true, our history hath been 
written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but 
hath not been esteemed of like authority with the 
former by our forefathers, because there hath not 
been an exact succession of prophets since that 
time; and how firmly we have given credit to 
those books of our own nation is evident by what 
we do ; for during so many ages as have already 
past, no one has been so bold as to either add 
any thing to them, take any thing from them, or 
to make any change in them; but it becomes 
natural to all Jews, immediately and from their 
very birth, to esteem those books to contain 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 149 

divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, 
if occasion be, willingly to die for them. For it 
is no new thing for our captives, many of them 
in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to 
endure racks and deaths of all kinds upon the 
theaters, that they may not be obliged to say 
one word against our laws, and the records that 
contain them; whereas, there are none at all 
among the Greeks who would undergo the least 
harm on that account, no, nor in case all the 
writings that are among them were to be de- 
stroyed; for they take them to be such dis- 
courses as are framed agreeably to the inclina- 
tions of those that write them; and they have 
justly the same opinion of the ancient writers, 
since they see some of the present generation 
bold enough to write about such affairs, wherein 
they w r ere not present, nor had concern enough 
to inform themselves about them from those that 
knew them; examples of which may be had in 
this late war of ours, where some persons have 
written histories, and published them, without 
having been in the places concerned, or having 
been near them when the actions were done ; but 
these men put a few things together by hearsay, 
and insolently abuse the world, and call these 
writings by the name of Histories." (Antiq. of 
the Jews. Fl. Josephus vs. Apion. Book I., 8.) 
The books composing the Apocrypha are not 



150 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

only destitute of the sanction of the Jewish 
authorities and people, but Christ, the great 
teacher, has left them without his sanction. He 
recommended the perusal and investigation of 
the Jewish Scriptures. He gave his approval 
and authority to the Law, the Prophets, and the 
Psalms, by quoting from them and otherwise, 
but not a word did he utter in favor of, or, so 
far as we know, about the apocryphal books. 
His apostles, who were instructed by him, and 
commissioned by him to preach the unsearchable 
riches of grace, and who reasoned out of the 
Scriptures, wrote Epistles, which have come down 
to us, in which we find not a word that places 
the seal of inspiration upon a single book of the 
Apocrypha. Moreover, we turn to the books 
themselves and examine them. We find, as the re- 
sult of the investigation, that they set up no claim 
to inspiration, and that there are no marks, signs, 
or evidences of inspiration upon them or in them. 
In truth, they were written in a period in which 
there was no inspired prophet, and in which no 
divine revelations were made. They were written 
after the death of Malachi, the last of the proph- 
ets, and before the birth of John the Baptist, and 
the advent of Jesus, and, consequently, it is 
certain that they were not written by inspiration, 
and are not inspired books. 

Again, those who have examined the writings 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 151 

of the Christian Fathers, tell us that in their 
catalogues of the sacred books the apocryphal 
writings are not found, and that it was not until 
the fourth century that they were appointed to 
be read in the Church, and that even then they 
were not considered a part of the word of God, 
but were read only for instruction in life and 
manners, and not as authority in doctrine. In 
vain, then, do we look for proof of the inspiration 
and authority of the book of Maccabees, from 
which the text adduced is taken. There is 
nothing in proof but the assertion of Rome. 
The text is, therefore, incompetent to establish 
any doctrine in theology. It can only have at 
farthest the force of history, while in fact there 
is no certainty that it is a correct and truthful 
statement. Judas Maccabeus may, or he may 
not, have done what is here attributed to him. 

We will, however, examine the arguments of 
the papists. They assume that, admitting which 
they are far from doing, the book from which the 
passage is taken to be no part of the word of 
God, yet it is allowed on all sides to be a good 
and useful history, and as such, shows the creed 
and practice of the people of God upon the points 
under consideration, one hundred and fifty years 
before Christ. That they then believed in the 
efficacy of prayers and sacrifices for the dead, and 
that they then believed in purgatory, it being in 



152 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

the very nature of the subject, at the foundation 
of praying for the dead and offering sacrifices for 
them. To strengthen the position and give force 
to the conclusion, they farther say that when 
Christ came, he found the Jews "believing these 
points of doctrine, and practicing upon the same, 
and while he condemned and refuted the doctrines 
of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he uttered never 
a word in correction or censure of the doctrine of 
purgatory and the practice of offering prayers 
and sacrifices for the dead. To all this we will 
give a brief reply. 

Let us grant, for the sake of the argument, 
that the Jews of the period above mentioned, and 
even before it, held the doctrine of purgatory, 
and engaged in offering prayers and alms for the 
dead, it does not follow from thence that the 
doctrine is true and the practice correct. To 
see this as clear as demonstration, it is only 
necessary to refer to their tenets and practice 
upon other matters. From the days of Moses 
the Jews believed in granting divorces for trivial 
offenses — offenses other than adultery — and prac- 
ticed polygamy. We suppose that even papists, 
though their record touching these points is not 
the purest upon the annals of time, would not 
attempt to sustain the doctrine and right of di- 
vorce for trivial offenses, and justify the practice 
of polygamy by the belief and practice of the 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 153 

Jews from the days of Moses. And yet the 
attempt would be as laudable, logical, and suc- 
cessful as the attempt to prove the existence of 
an intermediate state in which souls are purified, 
and out of which state the prayers of living 
saints and relatives w T ill extricate them. 

The argument that Jesus did not condemn the 
doctrine and practice of the nation on these 
points being as trifling as the one of which w T e 
have just disposed, we might pass it by, but 
we choose to refute it in its strongest attitude. 
We may allow that the Jews believed and prac- 
ticed according to the belief and practice of the 
Church of Rome pertaining to purgatory and 
prayers for the dead — and that Jesus nowhere, 
in any form, or in any degree, censured or dis- 
approved their doctrine and practice in these 
things — and then we may justly and properly 
reject the conclusion that the doctrine is and 
must be true and the practice right. A little 
consideration will show this. It is a false assump- 
tion that Christ took occasion to animadvert, all 
and singular, the vain and unfounded doctrines 
of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees 
believed in metempsychosis, or the transmigration 
of souls. There is no record of a correction- or 
censure of this doctrine by Christ. We would, 
in candor and in meekness, challenge the world 
to show that Jesus ever spake disapprovingly of 



154 THE STATE OP THE DEAD. 

it as he did of the hypocrisy and long prayers of 
the Pharisees. According to the arguments of 
the papal authors, we ought to receive this doc- 
trine of transmigration as true and scriptural. 
Here is the argument : The Jews, before, and in 
the time of, our Lord's ministry, believed in the 
transmigration of souls. Jesus, who condemned 
the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
made no criticism and fastened no censure upon 
this doctrine. Therefore, it is true and to be 
believed. This argument is false in its premises, 
and consequently false in its conclusions. For, 
without controversy, the doctrine of the trans- 
migration of souls is unscriptural and untrue. 
The Scriptures and reason refute it as they refute 
the dogma of purgatory and praying for the dead. 
The arguments here adduced by Romish authors 
have now been examined in as fair and candid 
a manner as possible, and we feel abundantly 
justified in pronouncing them weak, inconclusive, 
and absurd. 

As this examination sets forth the subject as 
presented in this text in its true light, we might 
very justly assume that nothing more is needed 
in its elucidation, and here we might pause. 
But let us view the subject a little in the 
strongest attitude assumed for it by the Church 
of Ptome. The text, she affirms, is a part of 
the inspired word of God. This is the strongest 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 155 

and highest ground which she occupies. Now 
upon the supposition that this ground is tenable, 
that the position is true, does the text substan- 
tiate the existence of a purgatory, and vindicate 
the practice of praying for the dead, as founded 
thereupon? After weighing every word in it, 
and considering it in all its bearings, we answer 
that it does not. It is simply a narrative of 
what Judas Maccabeus did in commemoration 
of his soldiers who were slain in a certain battle 
which he fought. He gathered a specified sum 
of silver and sent to Jerusalem to make a sin- 
offering for them. This lone fact does not prove 
the existence of a purgatory, and the passage 
mentions no such place. This general did not, 
so far as the narrative shows, make a sin-offering 
for his soldiers who had been slain, because he 
knew T them to be, or believed them to be suffering 
in an intermediate state, under sins that could 
be expiated by offerings which he could have 
made in Jerusalem. The foundation of his 
action was the resurrection of the dead. He 
was no Saclclucee, for he believed in the resur- 
rection. By this transaction, he intended to 
declare his faith and hope in the resurrection 
from the dead. His belief in the resurrection 
was what made this act consistent and honest — 
such an act on the part of a Saclclucee would 
have been inconsistent and dishonest. This pas- 



156 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

sage does not intend to commend this act, and 
does not commend it, only so far as concerns 
the consistency and honesty of Judas Maccabeus. 
The resurrection of the dead is the point in this 
act. Did the sin-offering which this general 
caused to be made in any way aid in securing 
the resurrection of the soldiers for whom it was 
made ? No one professing to know any thing 
of the subject could pretend to say that it did. 
If it could not and did not aid in the resurrection 
of the dead, then the passage does not show 
any aid or benefit whatsoever. Would any one 
adduce this passage in proof of the resurrection 
of the dead ? Surely not. Would any one argue 
that because there is to be a resurrection of the 
dead, therefore we should pray for the dead, 
and offer sin-offerings for them? Even the 
Church of Rome in her folly, we believe, does 
not assume this position — it is too absurd even 
for Romish priests — while the truth is, it might 
be more feasibly adduced in support of these 
points, than in support of purgatory and the 
practice of the Church of Rome in offering 
prayers, alms, and masses, for the dead. Having 
reached this point in the investigation of this 
text, so proudly arrayed, and ' so confidently 
relied on by popery, we may exult a little 
over the results, for the light which has 
fallen upon the text has shown that there is 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 157 

nothing in it supporting the papal dogma of 
purgatory ! 

Were we to carry out our original intention 
to investigate the subject of prayers for the dead, 
separately at some length, this would be the 
proper place for the investigation ; but this text 
from Maccabees fails so completely to establish 
the doctrine, and leaves it so immersed in ab- 
surdity, and it being the only passage which 
popery claims and presents as Scripture proof 
of the doctrine, w r e deem it unnecessary to ex- 
tend the investigation farther. Whatever the 
Jews believed centuries ago, and whatever they 
believe at the present day, and whatever the 
Christian Fathers wrote and did, they give no 
support to this doctrine, and nowhere in the 
Old or New Testament are we taught to pray 
for the dead. So we will here dismiss this part 
of the subject. 

We will now turn our attention to the con- 
sideration of Matt. xii. 31, 32. Cardinal Wise- 
man holds the following language in connection 
with this text : " Our blessed Saviour, on one 
occasion, distinguishes two kinds of sins, and 
calls one a sin against the Holy Ghost, saying, 
6 Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son 
of man, it shall be forgiven him; but he that 
shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not 
be forgiven him, either in this world or in the 



158 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

next.' Here is a species of sin, the aggravated 
nature of which is described by its not being 
forgiven in the next world. Should we not 
thence conclude that some other sins may be 
forgiven there? Why give this peculiar char- 
acteristic to one, if no sin is ever pardoned in 
the next world? Surely, we have a right to 
conclude that there is some remission of sin 
there; and yet it cannot be either in heaven, 
or in the place of eternal punishment. We 
must, therefore, admit some other state in which 
this may be." (Lect. on the Principal Doctrines 
and Practices of the Catholic Church, Lect. xi., 
pp. 48, 49.) 

Milner, attempting to give proof of his doc- 
trine from the New Testament, says : " I might 
here add, as a farther proof, the denunciation 
of Christ concerning blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost, namely, that this sin ' shall not be for- 
given, either in this world or in the world to come ' 
— Matt. xii. 32 — which words clearly imply 
that some sins are forgiven in the world to 
come, as the ancient fathers show." (End of 
Religious Controversy, Letter xliii., p. 263.) 

The Rev. John Gother, in his Representation 
of the papist, says in reference to this text : 
" The being also of a third place is plainly inti- 
mated by our Saviour — Matt. xii. 32 — where 
he says, i Whosoever speaketh against the Holy 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 159 

Ghost, it shall not le forgiven him, neither in this 
world, neither in the tvorld to come! By which 
words Christ evidently supposes that though 
these shall not, yet some sins are forgiven in 
the world to come ; which, since it cannot be in 
heaven where no sin can enter, nor in hell, where 
there is no remission, it must necessarily be in 
some middle state ; and in this sense it was 
understood by St. Augustine above thirteen hun- 
dred years ago." (The Papist Misrepresented 
and Truly Represented, p. 42.) 

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Chailoner, presenting the 
grounds they have for purgatory from Scripture, 
says : 

" 5thly. Because our Lord tells us — St. Matt, 
xii. 32 — that whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, nor 
in this world, neither in the world to come. 
Where our Lord (who could not speak any thing 
absurd or out of the way) would never have 
mentioned 'forgiveness in the world to come/ 
if sins not forgiven in this world could never 
be forgiven in the world to come. Now, if there 
may be forgiveness of any sin whatsoever in the 
world to come, there must be a middle place or 
purgatory ; for no sin can enter heaven to be 
forgiven there, and in hell there is no forgive- 
ness." (The Catholic Christian Instructed, pp. 
147, 148.) 



160 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

There is here among these authors a remarka- 
ble oneness of position, and uniformity of argu- 
ment. "We are impressed with the idea that 
these authors are not giving their own convic- 
tions based upon their own discoveries of truth 
— that they are not presenting arguments which 
are the results of their own investigations of 
the subject. The conviction is instantly forced 
upon us that they have all been taught in the 
same school, and that they are presenting and 
defending what was there imparted and incul- 
cated, and what they accepted without investi- 
gation. We could give no reasonable account 
on any other hypothesis for four intelligent men 
being induced to assume such positions, present 
such arguments, and defend such conclusions as 
these authors have done in their exposition of 
this text. How can it be possible for a man 
with mind and education enough to discharge 
the duties of a priest or bishop, to be so infatu- 
ated as to assume that because a certain sin is 
unpardonable — never can be forgiven in this 
world nor in the world to come — there must 
be some sins which are forgiven in the world 
to come ! 

The line of argument here pursued by these 
men will prove almost any thing. Let us try 
it in its application to a point. For instance, we 
will assume, and prove it by the argument, that 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 161 

there is forgiveness in hell. This is plainly in- 
dicated, yea, positively declared, by our Saviour 
— Matt. xii. 32 — where he says, "Whosoever 
speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in 
the world to come." By these words, Christ 
evidently supposes that though these sins shall 
not be, yet some sins are forgiven in the world to 
come ; which since it cannot be in heaven, where 
no sin can enter, it must necessarily be in hell, 
for there are only these two places. This is the 
argument given as nearly as possible in the 
words of Gother, applied to the position that 
there is forgiveness in hell instead of the position 
that there is a purgatory. It is as logical and 
conclusive in its application to, and establishment 
of, the former position as the latter, if not 
more so. 

We would conclude that these arguments are 
too weak to mislead any one, did we not know 
that they have led thousands astray. We shall 
examine them farther before w r e have done with 
the text. 

However numerous the opinions of the doc- 
trine contained in this text, and however many 
the difficulties it is supposed to include, it pre- 
sents no difficulty in favor of the Church of 
Rome, or in connection with the point upon 
which she insists. What is the sin against the 
6 



162 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

Holy Ghost? This question has given birth to 
many theories, but does not bear upon the present 
controversy. Whether the sin against the Holy 
Ghost be presumption, apostasy, or something 
else, does not affect the doctrine or arguments 
of these papists. The opinion most in accord- 
ance with the text, and context also, is, that this 
sin was the attributing of the works which Jesus 
performed by the Holy Ghost to the agency of 
Beelzebub, the prince of devils. 

In the quotation given above, from Wiseman, 
the assumption is made that the peculiar charac- 
teristic of this sin is that it is not forgiven in the 
next world. This is, at the outset, a false assump- 
tion. This sin in this particular is not at all 
peculiar from other sins, for none are forgiven 
in the next world. There are two particulars 
in which this sin is peculiar. It is peculiar in 
that it is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And 
again, it is peculiar in that it is unpardonable. 
The change of dispensations and the lapse of 
ages can never bring up a period at which the 
man who commits this sin can be released from 
its guilt. This position assumed by Wiseman is 
of too much importance to be lost sight of, even 
if we become obnoxious to the charge of repe- 
tition ; for it is the point upon which the papists 
have hinged the whole subject in the exposition 
of this text. Could there be an assumption 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 163 

more unfounded and more absurd than that the 
peculiar characteristic of this sin is that it is not 
forgiven in the next zvorld? Is there any thing 
clearer to the perception and more certain to the 
mind than that its peculiar characteristics consist 
in blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and its being 
unpardonable ? This view throws the light of 
truth upon the subject and dissipates the errors 
of Rome as the sun dissipates the clouds and 
fogs of morning. 

A knowledge and declaration of the nature and 
destiny of one sin does not give us a knowledge 
of the nature and destiny of any other sin. This, 
already apparent, is easily illustrated. We know 
the United States — the extent of her territory; 
the fertility of her soil ; the variety of her pro- 
ductions ; the length of her rivers, canals, and 
railroads ; the number, wealth, and population of 
her cities ; and the nature and genius of her 
government. This does not imply or secure a 
knowledge of other nations. We declare the 
United States a great and powerful nation, with 
a good and noble government. This does not 
justify the conclusion that all other nations are 
contemptible and weak, and their governments 
vicious and disreputable. So far as any thing 
contained in this declaration goes, the British 
nation also may be a great and powerful nation, 
and her government famous for the happiness 



164 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

it secures and the equity it maintains. For 
aught we know, or for any thing said here about 
the United States, there may be other nations 
far excelling her in greatness, in power, in sta- 
bility, in equity, in wealth, and in happiness. 
We declare that Italy has clear skies, an invig- 
orating atmosphere, a delightful climate, and land- 
scapes rich in variety and beauty. This does 
not justify any conclusion whatever about the 
skies, atmosphere, climate, and landscapes of 
other countries. Other lands, for aught con- 
tained in this declaration, may boast of bright 
and sunny skies, of healthy and invigorating 
atmospheres, and of varied and beautiful land- 
scapes. Jesus declares here that the blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven 
unto men, neither in this life, neither in the 
future life — this much of the text — this bare 
declaration — and this is the point upon which 
papists found their doctrine and arguments — 
gives us no knowledge of any other sins — can- 
not enable us to know whether other sins are 
pardonable or not, either here or hereafter. All 
that we know of other sins is contained in this 
following portion of the text, "All manner of sin 
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." In 
this language, there is nothing about forgiveness 
in purgatory — no one pretends that there is. We 
must say, then, that an analysis of this text, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 165 

which gives us a view of its separate parts and 
of its whole, shows how the grandest perversion 
of the Christian religion, the Church of Rome, 
has perverted this portion of God's inspired 
word. 

Milner asserts that the place named by Jesus 
in the history of Dives and Lazarus — Luke xvi. 
22 — under the title of "Abraham's bosom," is an 
intermediate state, the same place as purgatory. 
As we shall have occasion to investigate the 
whole narrative concerning Dives and Lazarus, 
in connection with another point of doctrine, 
and one akin to that now before us, we shall 
pass it by at present, merely remarking as we 
pass, that it gives no support whatever to this 
much-cherished dogma of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Milner. 

While the Bible is a plain book, suited to the 
capacities and comprehension of the human family, 
for whose benefit and guidance it was given, 
there are passages in it enveloped in some mys- 
tery, and difficult of a clear and satisfactory 
explanation. There are perhaps none more so 
than the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
verses of the third chapter of 1 Corinthians. 
This is one part of St. Paul's writings hard to 
be understood, which the would-be learned pa- 
pists have perverted, not only to their own shame, 
but to the destruction of many of the unlearned 
and unstable. They have puffed and fanned 



166 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

around this scripture until they have kindled 
upon it for themselves the fire of purgatory. 
"But he himself shall be saved; yet so as by 
fire." This presents to the mind of the papist 
a process in the future state, in which the works 
of the unwise builder, and the doctrines of the 
mistaken teacher, are burned up, and the soul 
of the unfortunate and unsanctified saint is 
purged from remaining stains of sin. 

We shall give an exposition of this scripture, 
which, we conceive, contains its true meaning, 
and is a solution of it which cuts off the fuel and 
quenches the fire of purgatory, after which we 
shall subjoin the expositions of one or two Prot- 
estant commentators, that the reader may have 
before him the commonly received view of Prot- 
estant writers upon this difficult passage. In 
our own exposition, we think it advisable to set 
down a translation of the text which we have 
made. It is, as nearly as can be, a literal trans- 
lation of the original, and one which we believe 
removes much of the obscurity enveloping the 
text of the authorized version : And if any one 
build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious 
stones, wood, hay, stubble, the work of every one 
shall be made manifest ; for the day shall reveal it ; 
because by fire it shall be disclosed, and the work of 
every one of what kind it is, the fire shall prove it. 
If the ivork of any one endure, which he hath built 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 167 

thereupon, he shall receive a reward ; if the toorlc 
of any one he burned up, he shall suffer punishment ; 
for he shall he saved then as by fire. 

Jesus Christ is the foundation of that spiritual 
house, the topmost stone of which is to be brought 
forth with shouting, Grace, grace unto it ! Men 
from all nations are called upon as workmen to 
labor in its erection. Pure and good works, and 
true and holy doctrines, are in this spiritual fabric, 
as gold, silver, and precious stones in a material 
building — they are suitable, valuable, and en- 
during. Deeds disguised, and doctrines false, are 
in this building as wood, hay, and stubble in a 
material building — unsuitable, worthless, and un- 
enduring. The day mentioned as the day that 
shall reveal every man's work, is the judgment- 
day. That clay will test every man and his work, 
and disclose his character and the nature of his 
deeds. Jesus, at the end of time, shall be re- 
vealed from heaven with his holy angels in flaming 
fire, and gathering all men before him, he will sit 
as a refiner and purifier of silver, and will test 
every man's w T ork as the smith tests his metal in 
a furnace of fire. Christ has counseled us to buy 
of him gold tried in the fire. We shall see the 
importance of following this counsel when the 
ordeal of the judgment-day makes manifest our 
work, disclosing and making its nature apparent 
to men and angels. Fire decomposes wood, hay, 



168 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

and stubble, and every other combustible matter. 
Gold, silver, and precious stones will bear the 
action of fire. In the transactions of the judg- 
ment, men will be tried in the crucible, for those 
of them that are saved will be saved as by fire. 
In the case of some, their deeds will be found 
right, and their doctrines true. In the case of 
others, their deeds will prove to be evil, and their 
doctrines false. Those approved and saved will 
be approved and saved because their works have 
proven to be genuine and good, like gold, silver, 
and precious stones. Those who are condemned 
and lost will receive their doom because their 
works proved in the ordeal to be evil and false— 
unendurihg, like wood, hay, and stubble. 

This scripture does not teach that a man will 
be saved in heaven, his false doctrines and evil 
deeds to the contrary notwithstanding, and that 
he will only suffer loss in the diminishing of his re- 
ivard in proportion to his false doctrines disclosed by 
the light of the day tuhich is to try his work. The 
gospel requires the grace, image, and life of God 
in the heart; a life of obedience to the law of 
God ; the performance of good works ; and the 
dissemination of truth in every possible way. 
The Judge will scrutinize the works of every one 
to ascertain whether or not he has these require- 
ments. If the fire of the judgment, by which a 
man is to be saved, if saved at all, demonstrates 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 169 

that lie has these enduring requirements, he will 
be accepted and rewarded with heaven. If it is 
proven that he is destitute of these essential 
requisites, he will be lost and punished in hell for 
ever. He that hath built with the gold, and sil- 
ver, and precious stones of the gospel, shall have 
for his valuable and enduring labors an enduring 
reward — eternal life. He that shall neglect these 
valuable and enduring materials, and trifle away 
his time in false doctrines, shall be punished with 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of his power. 

The expositions which w T e promised to subjoin 
shall now be given, commencing with the para- 
phrase of the text by H. Hammond, beginning at 
the twelfth and ending with the fifteenth verse, 
which embraces the verses w T e have translated 
above: "12, 13, 14. That which is regularly to 
be built thereon, is constant confession of Christ, 
in despight of afflictions, which, like gold, and 
silver, etc., is but refined and purified but not 
consumed in the fire, But for any doctrine of 
worldly wisdom — ver. 18 — (see note a.) of pru- 
dential compliances with the persecutors, Jewes 
or Gentiles, If any such earthy material be 
brought in in stead of it, it shall be brought sud- 
denly to the triall ; For that judgment of Christ 
which shall shortly passe upon me, for the de- 
stroying all corrupt believers on one side, and de- 



170 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

livering and owning all true believers (see Rom. 
13. d. and Heb. 10. a.) on the other, shall deale 
with them, as fire doth with that which is put 
in it to be tried, (preserving and refining what is 
true and good metall, and making it more illustri- 
ous, but burning up all that is combustible,) burn 
up and consume all this worldly wisdome, and 
burnish the constancy of others like gold in the 
fire, (see Rev. 3. 18.) and preserve such, whilst 
all others are involved in their own subtilties, v. 
19. And so all that adhere sincerely to Christ, 
they shall be sure not to misse their reward, 
preservation here in this world, besides that other 
that expects them eternally. 

" 15. But if it prove combustible matter, if the 
doctrine, or practise shall upon examination prove 
false and unchristian, and so will not bear that 
triall, (such are the Grnosticks doctrines of denying 
Christ, when persecuted) it shall then be so farre 
from helping him to any advantage as the Gnos- 
tick compiler hopes it will, that it shall bring the 
greatest danger upon him, and if upon timely re- 
pentance, or by his not having actually denied 
Christ (for all his superstructing of some erro- 
neous doctrines) he be more mercifully dealt with 
by Christ and freed from having his portion with 
unbelievers, yet it shall goe hard with him, as 
with one that is involved in a common fire, and 
hardly escapes out of it." 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 171 

The above is copied from an edition published 
in London, A.D. 1653. 

Dr. Adam Clarke comments as follows : "Verse 
12. If any man build — gold, silver, etc.'] Without 
entering into curious criticisms relative to these 
different expressions, it may be quite enough for 
the purpose of edification to say that, by gold, 
silver, and precious stones, the apostle certainly 
means pure and wholesome doctrines : by wood, 
hay, and stubble, false doctrines ; such as at that 
time prevailed in the Corinthian Church ; for in- 
stance, that there should be no resurrection of the 
body ; that a man may, on his father's death, 
lawfully marry his step -mother; that it was 
necessary to incorporate much of the Mosaic law 
with the gospel; and, perhaps, other matters, 
equally exceptionable, relative to marriage, 
concubinage, fornication, frequenting heathen 
festivals, and partaking of the flesh which had 
been offered in sacrifice to an idol; with many 
other things, which, with the above, are more 
or less hinted at by the apostle in these two 
letters. 

"Verse 13. The day shall declare it, because it 
shall be revealed by fire^\ There is much differ- 
ence of opinion relative to the meaning of the 
terms in this and the following verses. That the 
apostle refers to the approaching destruction of 
Jerusalem I think very probable ; and when this 



172 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

is considered, all the terms and metaphors will 
appear clear and consistent. 

" The day is the time of punishment coming on 
this disobedient and rebellious people. And this 
day being revealed by fire, points out the extreme 
rigor, and totally destructive nature, of that judg- 
ment. 

"And the fire shall try every maris work"] If 
the apostle refers to the Judaizing teachers and 
their insinuations that the law, especially circum- 
cision, was of eternal obligation, then the day of 
fire — the time of vengeance, which was at hand- — 
would sufficiently disprove such assertions ; as, 
in the judgment of God, the whole temple service 
should be destroyed ; and the people, who fondly 
presumed on their permanence and stability, 
should be dispossessed of their land and scattered 
over the face of the whole earth. The difference 
of the Christian and Jewish systems should then 
be seen : the latter should be destroyed in that 
fiery day, and the former prevail more than ever. 

"Verse 14. If any mans tvork abide"] Perhaps 
there is here an allusion to the purifying of differ- 
ent sorts of vessels under the law. All that 
could stand the fire were to be purified by the 
fire ; and those which could not resist the action 
of the fire were to be purified by water. Num. 
xxxi. 23. The gold, silver, and precious stones, 
could stand the fire ; but the tvood, hay, and stub- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 173 

ble, must be necessarily consumed. So, in that 
great and terrible day of the Lord, all false doc- 
trine, as well as the system that was to pass aivay, 
should be made sufficiently manifest, and God 
would then show that the gospel, and that alone, 
was that system of doctrine which he should 
bless and protect, and none other. 

"He shall receive a reivard.~\ He has not only 
preached truth, but he has labored in the word 
and doctrine. And the reward is to be according 
to the labor. See on ver. 8. 

"Verse 15. If any mans work shall be burned, 
he shall suffer loss^\ If he have preached the ne- 
cessity of incorporating the law with the gospel, 
or proclaimed as a doctrine of God any thing 
which did not proceed from heaven, he shall suffer 
loss — all his time and labor will be found to be 
uselessly employed and spent. Some refer the 
loss to the war/c, not to the man; and understand 
the passage thus : If any mans ivorh be burned, 
IT shall suffer loss — much shall be taken away 
from it ; nothing shall be left but the measure of 
truth and uprightness which it may have con- 
tained. 

" But he himself shall be served'] If he have 
sincerely and conscientiously believed what he 
preached, and yet preached what was wrong, not 
through malice or opposition to the gospel, but 
through mere ignorance, he shall be saved ; God 



174 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

in his mercy will pass by his errors; and he 
shall not suffer punishment because he was mis- 
taken. Yet, as in most erroneous teachings there 
is generally a portion of willful and obstinate 
ignorance, the salvation of such erroneous teach- 
ers is very rare; and is expressed here, yet so 
as by fire, i. e., with great difficulty; a mere 
escape; a hair s- breadth deliverance; he shall 
be like a brand plucked out of the fire. 

u The apostle obviously refers to the case of 
% man, who, having builded a house, and begun 
to dwell in it, the house happens to be set on 
fire, and he has warning of it just in time to 
escape with his life, losing at the same time 
his house, his goods, his labor, and almost his 
own life. So he who, while he holds the doc- 
trine of Christ crucified as the only foundation 
on which a soul can rest its hopes of salvation, 
builds at the same time, on that foundation, 
Antinomianism, or any other erroneous or de- 
structive doctrine, he shall lose all his labor, 
and his own soul scarcely escape everlasting 
perdition ; nor even this, unless sheer ignorance 
and inveterate prejudice, connected with much 
sincerity, be found in his case. 

u The popish writers have applied what is 
here spoken to the fire of purgatory ; and they 
might with equal propriety have applied it to 
the discovery of the longitude, the perpetual 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 175 

motion, or the philosophers stone; because it 
speaks just as much of the former as it does 
of any of the latter. The fire mentioned here 
is to try the man's work, not to purify his soul; 
but the dream of purgatory refers to the purging 
in another state what left this impure; not the 
ivork of the man, but the man himself; but here 
the fire is said to try the work : ergo, purgatory is 
not meant, even if such a place as purgatory 
could be proved to exist ; which remains yet to 
be demonstrated." 

The twenty-ninth verse of the fifteenth chap- 
ter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians has 
been referred to — Milner's End of Controversy, 
p. 262 — as showing that at the beginning of 
Chistianity the Jews were in the habit of prac- 
ticing some religious rites for the relief of the 
departed, and that the Apostle Paul did not 
censure these rites. During all the years of 
the eighteen and a half centuries w T hich have 
passed away since the advent of Jesus, no testi- 
mony brought forward has been more foreign 
to the subject upon which it has been adduced 
than this. There is in this scripture no reference 
to, and no information upon, any Jewish prac- 
tice, rite, or ceremony whatsoever, and there is 
nothing in it pertaining to a Christian rite or 
ceremony for the relief of those already dead. 
" Else w T hat shall they do which are baptized 



176 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why 
are they then baptized for the dead ?" Would 
any one imagine for a moment that this language 
means the same as if it read, Else what shall 
they do which are baptized for those who are 
already dead? why are they then baptized for 
those who are already dead? A mind undark- 
ened, and judgment unperverted, and reason 
unbiased, can put no such construction upon the 
language of the text. 

The Messiah taught that those who desired 
to follow him should deny themselves, and take 
up their cross. This taking up the cross did not 
mean contending with the little perplexing diffi- 
culties of life, nor the discharge of the common 
duties of the Christian, but referred to suffering 
crucifixion for the advocacy of, and adherence 
to, the cause and religion of Jesus. In the 
time of St. Paul, when many Christians were 
martyred, and all suffered persecution, all who 
were baptized expected to be put to death for 
the cause which they espoused, and were, con- 
sequently, literally baptized for death, or for 
the dead. They made of themselves by bap- 
tism victims of death. They were not baptized 
for the benefit of those already dead, nor with 
any reference to the condition of those already 
in the future state of existence. At this time, 
when religion was espoused in the reception of 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 177 

the initiating rite of baptism, it was clone not 
only in the face and expectation of martyrdom, 
but in hope of the resurrection from the dead. 
As Abraham offered his son Isaac, "accounting 
that God was able to raise him up, even from 
the dead," so those receiving baptism, and by 
thus embracing religion, exposed themselves to 
death, believed it a thing credible that God 
should raise the dead. They had faith that if 
they died for the religion into which they were 
initiated, they would be restored to life by the 
resurrection of the body, and its immortality 
with the soul. 

Much more could be written concerning this 
text, but enough has been said to give the true 
sense of the apostle's language. The theory of 
Catholicity is not sustained b}^ the text, or any 
inference which can be drawn from it. 

At this stage in the progress of our interpreta- 
tion, we approach the text in the First Epistle of 
Peter — "By which also he went and preached 
unto the spirits in prison" — iii. 19. The papists 
assume that the spirits here mentioned were 
disembodied and in the land of spirits, shut up 
in a prison to pay the indebtedness of remaining 
guilt, according to Matt. v. 25, 26, and that in 
that place, after his crucifixion, Christ preached 
to them, offering and securing to them release 
from the prison in which they were bound, and 



178 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

from the torturing pains under which they were 
suffering. Thus these admirers of their own 
inventions substantiate, to their own satisfaction, 
the existence of a purgatory. But surely, a 
theory which has to be supported by such flimsy 
and unjustifiable assumptions as these, must be 
without any inherent solidity and without any 
intrinsic worth ; and an author who would lay 
such foundations and argue upon such principles 
as are here involved, nlust be willing to sacrifice 
reason to imagination, and truth to prejudice and 
interest. 

The use of the term spirits will not in the 
least justify the opinion that these persons were 
disembodied. Spirit and soul are terms often used 
in speaking of individuals in the body. It is 
common with authors to put a part for the whole. 
A few texts out of many may suffice to show 
this. " The God of the spirits of all flesh." 
(Num. xvi. 22; xxvii. 16; Heb. xii. 9.) "If a 
soul shall sin through ignorance." (Lev. iv. 2.) 
"And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swear- 
ing." (Lev. v. 1.) "Let every soul be subject 
unto the higher powers." (Rom. xiii. 1.) 

Could any one, possessing the light of revela- 
tion and the knowledge of the one true God, 
believe with the ancient mythologists, that Heaven 
and Earth had two sons, the elder named Titan, 
and the younger Saturn; and that these two sons 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 179 

entered into a covenant about the dominions of 
their parents, which ended in a violation of the 
covenant upon the part of Saturn, and the impris- 
onment of him by Titan ? Could any one with 
the Bible to instruct him, and the fear of God 
before his eyes, believe with the worshipers of 
gods many, that he whom they call Jupiter, was 
the father of gods and men, the governor of heaven 
and earth, the lord of the elements, and the dis- 
penser of every blessing to mankind ? Could 
one with an enlightened reason, believe the fic- 
tion that Pluto, the reputed king of the infernal 
regions, carried one reputed Proserpine to hell 
in a chariot drawn by a magnificent span of 
steeds, black as ebony ? Or, could a mind re- 
ceiving the Scriptures, and enlightened by the 
same, believe that Mercury, one of the gods of 
the Greeks, conducted departed souls to the 
world of spirits ? These fictions of Mythology 
are as compatible with truth, reason, and the 
Bible, as is the assumption that Christ, after 
his crucifixion, went into the land of the de- 
parted, and preached to the spirits, confined 
there in punishment, the gospel of acceptance 
and deliverance ! 

A knowledge of the subject and object of the 
apostle's writing, and of the point upon which he 
was dwelling, wdil aid us in a proper solution and 
a correct understanding of this text. 



180 THE STATE 0E THE DEAD. 

Looking at the text in connection with the 
context, we shall see the subject upon which 
the apostle was writing, and his object for 
so doing. "And who is he that will harm 
you, if ye be followers of that which is good? 
But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy 
are ye ; and be not afraid of their terror, neither 
be troubled ; but sanctify the Lord God in your 
hearts ; and be ready always to give an answer 
to every man that asketh you a reason of the 
hope that is in you, with meekness and fear : 
having a good conscience; that, whereas they 
speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be 
ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversa- 
tion in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God 
be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil- 
doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to 
God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened 
by the Spirit : by which also he went and preached 
unto the spirits in prison ; which sometime were 
disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was 
a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were 
saved by water. The like figure w T hereunto, even 
baptism, doth also now save us, (not the putting 
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of 
a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ : who is gone into heaven, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 181 

and is on the right hand of God ; angels, and au- 
thorities, and powers being made subject unto 
him." (1 Pet. iii. 13-22.) 

It appears that the Christians whom the apostle 
was addressing, were exposed to, and were en- 
during, fiery trials in and from the world. They 
were suffering most terrible persecutions and 
most intolerable injuries, in various ways, for 
their adoption and maintenance of the kingdom 
and righteousness of Jesus Christ. St. Peter 
writes to them about these things, and takes in 
hand to strengthen them and encourage them to 
endure in patience and suffer in hope. In his 
effort to instruct, strengthen, and encourage these 
Christians in their sufferings, the apostle, in the 
course of his Epistle, mentions many things which 
he considers well calculated to accomplish his 
design and keep them steadfast. He tells them 
the object of permitting them to be "in heaviness 
through manifold temptations," namely, that their 
faith " might be found unto praise, and honor, and 
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." He tells 
them of the care which the Lord takes of the right- 
eous, and of his readiness to hear their prayers, 
and how he is against the wicked. "For the 
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his 
ears are open unto their prayers ; but the face of 
the Lord is against them that do evil." (Ver. 12.) 
Then he encourages them by the sufferings and 



182 THE STATE OE THE DEAD. 

triumph of Christ, and by the safety, deliverance, 
and preservation of righteous Noah and his 
family in the ark, while the disobedient perished 
in the waters. ye Christians, who are under 
grievous sufferings and fiery persecutions for 
"well-doing," we declare unto you that "it is 
better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer 
for well-doing than for evil-doing." This we 
illustrate and demonstrate to you by the triumph 
of Christ in his sufferings for others, and the 
deliverance and salvation of Noah and his family, 
and the destruction of the disobedient antedilu- 
vians. Behold, Christ suffered for others — he, a 
righteous and innocent being, suffered for un- 
righteous and guilty men — that he might bring 
them to God : this was well-doing — there was no 
selfishness or evil in it. He suffered, even being 
put to death in the flesh. But, behold his triumph! 
He was quickened — made alive— by the Spirit! 
He was made alive by that same Divine Power, 
or Spirit, by which he preached to the disobedient 
antediluvians in the time of Noah — the very time 
tvhile the ark was building. Again, see the fate 
of Noah and his household, and see the fate of 
the rebellious antediluvians, upon whom the long- 
suffering of God was exhausted, and upon whom 
the flood, in the breaking up of the fountains of 
the great deep, was brought ! View this scene, 
and consider the contrast ! These disobedient ones 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 183 

suffer for evil-doing. God's face is against them, 
and he sweeps them into eternity. This is suf- 
fering for penal purposes, and not for trial, cor- 
rection, and the accumulation for them of praise, 
honor, and glory ! Noah is righteous and en- 
gaged in tvell-doing. He and his household be- 
lieve the testimony of God concerning the flood. 
The eyes of the Lord are over them, and his ears 
are open to their prayer, and he saves them in the 
ark from the water of the flood. The suffering 
of Noah is preferable to that of the disobedient 
ones who perished in the flood. God being thus 
careful to watch, over, deliver, and save his right- 
eous ones, and being thus just and strict in pun- 
ishing with everlasting destruction the wicked, 
it is evidently better, if it be the purpose and 
will of God to expose you to suffering for well- 
doing, to suffer thus than to suffer for evil-doing. 
And, my suffering Christian brethren, baptism is 
the antitype of the ark. As Noah, who suffered 
persecutions from the world of the ungodly while 
he was building the ark, was saved in it, so you 
who suffer for receiving Christ in baptism, and 
adhering to him, shall be saved in and through 
baptism and the grace which it represents. 

Christ, by his Spirit, preached to the antedi- 
luvians before the flood came — before they died 
— while the ark was building. 

We will complete our exposition of this text 



184 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

with one or two quotations from Bishop Pearson. 
Writing in defense of the preexistence of Christ, 
he says : 

" Thirdly. We shall extend this preexistence 
to a far longer space of time — -to the end of the 
first world — nay, to the beginning of it. For he 
which was before the flood, and at the creation 
of the world, had a being before he was conceived 
by the Virgin. But Christ was really before 
the flood, for he preached to them that lived 
before it; and at the creation of the world, 
for he created it. That he preached to those 
before the flood, is evident by the words of St. 
Peter, who saith that Christ 'was put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by 
which also he went and preached unto the 
spirits in prison, which sometime were dis- 
obedient, when once the long-suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was 
a preparing.' (1 Pet. iii. 18-20.) From which 
words it appeareth that Christ preached by 
the same Spirit, by the virtue of which he was 
raised from the dead; but that Spirit was not 
his soul, but something of a greater power. 
Secondly. That those to whom he preached, 
were such as were disobedient. Thirdly. That 
the time when they were disobedient, was the 
time before the flood, while the ark was pre- 
paring. It is certain, then, that Christ did preach 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 185 

unto those persons, which in the days of Noah 
were disobedient, all that time 'the long-suffer- 
ing of God waited/ and consequently, so long 
as repentance was offered. And it is as certain 
that he never preached to them after they died ; 
which I shall not need here to prove, because 
those against whom I bring this argument deny 
it not. It followeth, therefore, that he preached 
to them while they lived, and were disobedient ; 
for in the refusing of that mercy, which was 
offered to them by the preaching of Christ, did 
their disobedience principally consist. In vain, 
then, are we taught to understand St. Peter 
of the promulgation of the gospel to the Gen- 
tiles after the Holy Ghost descended upon the 
apostles, when the words themselves refuse 
all relation to any such times or persons. 
For all those of whom St. Peter speaks were 
disobedient in the days of Noah. But none of 
those to whom the apostles preached were ever 
disobedient in the clays of Noah. Therefore, 
none of those to whom the apostles preached, 
were any of those of whom St. Peter speaks. 
It remaineth, therefore, that the plain interpre- 
tation be acknowledged for the true, that Christ 
did preach unto those men which lived before 
the flood, even while they lived, and conse- 
quently that he was before it. For though this 
was not done bv an immediate act of the Son 



186 THE STATE OF THE BEAD. 

of God, as if he personally had appeared on 
earth, and actually preached to that old world; 
but by the ministry of a prophet, by the sending 
of Noah, the eighth preacher of righteousness — 2 
Pet. ii. 5 — yet to do any thing by another not 
able to perform it without him, as much demon- 
strates the existence of the principal cause, as 
if he did it of himself without any intervening 
instrument." (An Exposition of the Creed, Art. 
ii., pp. 170-172.) 

Giving an exposition of Article V. of the 
Apostles' Creed, "He descended into hell," he 
writes : 

" The next place of Scripture brought to con- 
firm the descent is not so near in words, but 
thought to signify the end of that descent, and 
that part of his humanity by which he descended. 
For Christ, saith St. Peter, was 'put to death 
in the flesh, and quickened by the Spirit, by 
which also he went and preached unto the spirits 
in prison' — 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19 — where the Spirit 
seems to be the soul of Christ., and the spirits 
in prison, the souls of them that tvere in hell, or in 
some place at least separated from the joys of 
heaven : whither, because Ave never read our 
Saviour went at any other time, we may con- 
ceive he went in spirit then when his soul de- 
parted from his body on the cross. This did 
our Church first deliver as the proof and illus- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 187 

tration of the descent, and the ancient Fathers 
did apply the same in the like manner to the 
proof of this Article. But yet those words 
of St. Peter have no such power of probation; 
except we were certain that the Spirit there 
spoken of were the soul of Christ, and that the 
time intended for that preaching were after his 
death, and before his resurrection. "Whereas, 
if it were so interpreted, the difficulties are so 
many, that they staggered St. Augustine, and 
caused him at last to think that these words 
of St. Peter belonged not unto the doctrine of 
Christ's descending into hell. But indeed the 
Spirit by which he is said to preach, was not 
the soul of Christ, but that Spirit by which he 
was quickened; as appeareth by the coherence 
of the words, 'being put to death in the flesh, 
but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he 
went and preached unto the spirits in prison.' 
Now that Spirit by which Christ was quickened 
is that by which he was raised from the dead, 
that is, the power of his Divinity, as St. Paul 
expresseth it, i Though he was crucified through 
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God ' 
— 2 Cor. xiii. 4— in respect of which he preached 
to those that were disobedient in the clavs of 
Xoah, as we have already shown." (Pp. 3-45, 
346.) 

The acknowledgment of a purgatory may be 



188 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

essential to the renewing of the faith, the en- 
kindling of the love, and the deepening of the 
penitence, of the adherent of Catholicism; but 
the existence of such a place is repugnant to 
the word of God, and in particular does it con- 
travene such texts as represent the end of life 
to be the end of man's probation, and his charac- 
ter and state to be fixed and unchangeable after 
death. Life, swifter than a post, and but a span 
at best, is, nevertheless, the proper and the 
appointed time for man to work out his salvation, 
and its termination by death fixes his fate for 
eternity, shutting him up in hell, or giving him 
an abode in heaven. 

" Soon our whole term for wisdom is expired, 
(Thou knowest she calls no council in the grave ;) 
And everlasting fool is writ in fire, 
Or real wisdom wafts us to the skies." 

Kind, and wise, and imperative is the command, 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might ;" and powerful and moving the reason 
and motive by which it is enforced, " For there 
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wis- 
dom, in the grave, whither thou goest." "If 
the tree fall toward the south, or toward the 
north, in the place where the tree falleth, there 
it shall be." So as man dieth, he remains — a 
saint or a sinner. When the soul takes its 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 189 

flight from the body, earth, and time, then there 
stand before it the everlasting words of the 
Apocalypse, "He that is unjust, let him be 
unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him 
be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let 
him be righteous still; and he that is holy, 
let him be holy still." Inspiration has taught 
us that "It is appointed unto men once to 
die, but after this the judgment." When man 
goes into the land of spirits and to the God 
who made him, he " shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment," or " into life eternal." 

To borrow from Watts, when death, like a 
flood with rapid force, sweeps the wretched 
soul of the sinner away, 

" Then, swift and dreadful, she descends 

Down to the fiery coast, 
Among abominable fiends, 

Herself a frighted ghost. 
There endless crowds of sinners lie, 

And darkness makes their chains ; 
Tortured with keen despair they cry, 

Yet wait for fiercest pains. 
Not all their anguish and their blood 

For their old guilt atones ; 
Nor the compassion of a God 

Shall hearken to their groans." 

While on the other hand, as Mr. Wesley says of 
the disembodied saints, 



190 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

" The saints who die of Christ possessed, 
Enter into immediate rest ; 
For them no farther test remains 
Of purging fires and torturing pains. 
Who trusting in their Lord depart, 
Cleansed from all sin and pure in heart, 
The bliss unmixed, the glorious prize, 
They find with Christ in paradise. 
Close followed by their works they go, 
Their Master's purchased joy to know ; 
Their works enhance the bliss prepared, 
And each hath its distinct reward." 

Here ends our investigation of the subject 
of purgatory. Popes, priests, cardinals, and con- 
fessors may utter anathemas and sit in judg- 
ment upon the universe, but we in the boldness 
of truth, and in the confidence of right, pro- 
nounce this dogma of papists a superstition — a 
cunningly-devised fable — a human lie — which has 
been taught to the confiding masses, and forced 
and fixed upon them without any warrant of 
Scripture, and without rightful authority, and for 
a most arrogant and wicked purpose. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 191 



CHAPTER IX. 

OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 

The soul departed from the body is not in an 
unconscious sleep; is not in the tomb with its 
sleeping dust; is not passing from one body 
to another and reappearing in different beasts ; 
and is not in the purgatory made and maintained 
by Catholicity, as appears to the common sense 
of mankind. But are not all souls departed this 
life in a temporary abode in the invisible regions 
in a place which is neither heaven nor hell? 
And is not this to be the abode of all souls 
departing this life until the judgment? This is 
the doctrine of some religionists. Dr. (now 
Bishop) McTyeire, in a sermon published in the 
Methodist Pulpit South, a sermon no less re- 
markable for purity of diction than for true 
eloquence, dives into the midst of his subject in 
this language : 

" No one has yet been saved in heaven : no 
one sent to hell. These states and conditions 
will not be awarded till the judgment; and it 
will not take place till the resurrection." 



192 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

Farther on, lie gives us what he calls the 
three opinions most seriously entertained of the 
state of the dead during the interval between 
death and the resurrection, and says that the 
third opinion is that this state is u A conscious 
interval, which all shall pass through, except 
those found on the earth at the second coining of 
Christ. There is a place for our bodies, so also 
there is a receptacle for our souls, during their 
separation. This spirit-world receives all who de- 
part; good and bad, small and great, old and 
young. The Hebrew original of the Old Testa- 
ment calls it sheol, which the Greek translation of 
the Septuagint renders hades. The Greek origi- 
nal of the New Testament calls it hades, which 
the Latin Vulgate renders in/emus. The English 
translation of the Old Testament and of the New, 
sometimes renders it hell, sometimes grave. 

" Here, in sheol, hades, the souls of all who die 
are received, without respect to their goodness or 
badness, their happiness or misery. It is a tem- 
porary abode. But they abide not together. There 
is a gulf fixed— a great gulf and impassable — be- 
tween Dives and Lazarus, and all who fall re- 
spectively into their classes. Here are not only 
separations, but joys and sorrows ; for these 
affections are not confined to the body." 

Mr. Wesley, in his sermon on Dives and Laza- 
rus, expresses himself thus : 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 193 

"But see the change! 'The beggar died' — 
here ended poverty and pain — 'and was carried 
by angels ' — nobler servants than any that attended 
the rich man — 'into Abraham's bosom;' so the 
Jews commonly termed what our blessed Lord 
styles paradise; the place 'where the wicked 
cease from troubling, and where the weary are at 
rest ;' the receptacle of holy souls, from death to 
the resurrection. It is, indeed, very generally 
supposed that the souls of good men, as soon as 
they are discharged from the body, go directly to 
heaven ; but this opinion has not the least founda- 
tion in the oracles of God ; on the contrary, our 
Lord says to Mary, after the resurrection, ' Touch 
me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father' 
in heaven. But he had been in paradise, accord- 
ing to his promise to the penitent thief : ' This day 
shalt thou be with me in paradise.' Hence, it is 
plain that paradise is not heaven. It is, indeed, 
if we may be allowed the expression, the ante- 
chamber of heaven, where the souls of the right- 
eous remain till, after the general judgment, they 
are received into glory. 

" 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes.' what 
a change ! How is the mighty fallen ! But the 
word which is here rendered hell does not always 
mean the place of the damned. It is, literally, 
the invisible world ; and is of very wide extent, 
7 



194 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

including the receptacle of separate spirits, 
whether good or bad." (Vol. iv., pp. 252, 
253.) 

There is published in Josephus's complete works 
what purports to be an extract out of Josephus's 
discourse to the Greeks concerning hades, which, 
while it contains a great many absurd things, 
gives substantially the same ideas as are here set 
forth by Bishop McTyeire and Mr. Wesley. 

This is a fanciful theory, well suited to decla- 
mation, and well calculated to wing the flight of 
the imagination, and doubtless contributes no 
little to the gratification of itching ears and the 
desire to hear something new. But in all serious- 
ness, it is an unfounded theory, and as foreign to 
the teachings of the Bible as any other pagan 
notion. It is in origin, likeness, and image, the 
same as purgatory. The Church of England, 
though she adopted the Reformation, and pro- 
fessed to set up upon the principles of the same, 
did not escape from all the entanglements and 
meshes of papal superstitions and errors; and 
while she rejected the dogma of purgatory, she 
accepted, and continues to hold, the equally 
absurd and false doctrine of the Descent of 
Christ into Hell, and she adopted in the place 
of purgatory this doctrine of the Intermediate 
State of Souls between Death and the Resur- 
rection. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 195 

Verily, it requires no little courage and a 
good degree of confidence to attack a theory 
which has such names as Wesley, McTyeire, 
and others of equal fame and merits, for its 
defense, and ''The Church" for its authority! 
But "great men are not always wise," neither 
are they always right. Error has had as great 
names for its defense as ever had truth, and the 
grossest superstitions have been defended by the 
authority of a body under the title of " The 
Church," larger and more formidable than the 
one authorizing this theory. 

For Mr. Wesley our respect amounts to rever- 
ence, and our admiration of him is inexpressible. 
For Bishop McTyeire as a man, a Christian, a 
thinker, an officer in the Church, and an author, 
we have the most profound respect and an un- 
bounded admiration. But this theory, adopted 
and defended by these men, we attack with 
the same confidence and earnestness with which 
they defend it, and we insist that we be heard 
before we are denounced and cast aside. We 
promise to show the fallacy of the arguments 
by which it is sought to be established, and 
refute the theory of the intermediate state, as 
it is called, and to make good the position that 
souls departing this life go immediately to heaven 
or hell All the dead are now in their final and 
eternal abode, either in heaven or hell. 



196 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

It is encouraging to know that we do not stand 
alone in the position which we have assumed, as 
it is not desirable to stand single and alone upon 
points involving so much. Mr. Wesley admits in 
the quotation which Ave have already made from 
him, that " it is, indeed, very generally supposed 
that the souls of good men, as soon as they are 
discharged from the body, go directly to heaven." 
Moreover, if one denomination is against us, an- 
other is for us. We take from the Confession of 
Faith and the Larger Catechism of the Presbyte- 
rian Church this concise and emphatic language : 

u The bodies of men, after death, return to 
dust and see corruption ; but their souls, (which 
neither die nor sleep,) having an immortal sub- 
sistence, immediately return to God who gave 
them. The souls of the righteous, being then 
made perfect in holiness, are received into the 
highest heavens, where they behold the face of 
God in light and glory, waiting for the full re- 
demption of their bodies ; and the souls of the 
wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in 
torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judg- 
ment of the great day. Besides these two places 
for souls separated from their bodies, the Scrip- 
ture acknowledged none." (Ch. xxiii., pp. 133, 
134.) 

" The communion in glory with Christ, which 
the members of the invisible Church enjoy imme- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 197 

diately after death, is in that their souls are then 
made perfect in holiness, and received into the 
highest heavens, where they behold the face of 
God in light and glory ; waiting for the fall re- 
demption of their bodies, which even in death 
continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves 
as in their beds, till at the last day they be again 
united to their souls. Whereas the souls of the 
wicked are at their death cast into hell, where 
they remain in torments and utter darkness ; and 
their bodies kept in their graves, as in their 
prisons, until the resurrection and judgment of 
the great day." (Larger Catechism, Ans. to Ques. 
86th.) 

This Article in the Confession of Faith was 
leveled against purgatory, and gives upon this 
subject the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth, and as emphatically rejects and 
condemns the intermediate state of souls as it 
does purgatory. 

The descent of Christ into hell, as we have 
said above, is both absurd and false. A brief 
space may now be devoted to this Article placed 
in the Apostles' Creed, before we enter directly 
upon the examination of the prominent arguments 
and proofs for the intermediate state of souls. 
The Creed, as it now stands, declares of Christ, 
"He descended into hell;" but this was not 
originally in the Creed, the friends of the doc- 



198 THE STATE OE THE DEAD. 

trine themselves being judges; neither do the 
Scriptures anywhere by express language or im- 
plication teach the doctrine. 

Bishop Pearson, who is authority upon the 
Creed, and who subscribes and defends the Arti- 
cle of the Descent of Christ into Hell, tells us 
that— 

" The former part of this Article, of the descent 
into hell, hath not been so anciently in the Creed, 
or so universally, as the rest. The first place we 
find it used in was the Church of Aquileia ; and 
the time we are sure it was used in the Creed of 
that Church was less than 400 years after Christ. 
After that it came into the Roman Creed, and 
others, and hath been acknowledged as a part of 
the Apostles' Creed ever since." (Expos, of the 
Creed, Art. v., pp. 340, 341.) 

In a foot-note he says, " First, it is to be ob- 
served, that the descent into hell was not in the 
ancient creeds or rules of faith." (P. 340.) 

Again, " First, then, it is to be observed, that 
as this Article was first in the Aquileian Creed, 
so it was delivered there not in the express and 
formal terms of hell, but in such a word as may 
be capable of a greater latitude — 'Descendit in 
inferna :' which words as they were continued in 
other Creeds, so did they find a double interpreta- 
tion among the Greeks; some translating 'inferna/ 
hell; others, the lower parts ; the first with rela- 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 199 

tion to St. Peter's words of Christ, i Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in hell' — Acts ii. 27 — the 
second referring to that of St. Paul, ' He de- 
scended into the lower parts of the earth.' — Eph. 
iv. 9. 

" Secondly, I observe that in the Aquileian 
Creed, where this Article was first expressed, 
there was no mention of Christ's burial; but 
the words of their confession ran thus: Cru- 
cified under Pontius Pilate, he descended in inferna. 
From whence there is no question but the ob- 
servation of Ruffinus, who first expounded it, w T as 
most true, that though the Roman and Oriental 
Creeds had not these words, yet they had the sense 
of them in the word buried. It appeareth, thgre- 
fore, that the first intention of putting these words 
in the Creed was only to express the burial of our 
Saviour, or the descent of his body into the grave. 
But although they were first put in the Aquileian 
Creed to signify the burial of Christ, and those 
which had only the burial in their Creed, did 
confess as much as those which without the 
burial did express the descent; yet since the 
Roman Creed hath added the descent unto the 
burial, and expressed that descent by words signi- 
fying more properly hell, it cannot be imagined 
that the Creed, as it now stands, should signify 
only the burial of Christ by his descent into hell. 
But rather, being the ancient Church, did cer- 



200 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

tainly believe that Christ did some other way 
descend be~side his hurial ; being, though he 
interpreted those words of the burial only, yet 
in the relation of w r hat was done at our Saviour's 
death, Ruffimis makes mention of his descent into 
hell, beside, and distinct from, his sepulture ; 
being those who in after ages added it to the 
burial, did actually believe that the soul of Christ 
descended : it followeth that, for the exposition 
of the Creed, it is most necessary to declare in 
what that descent consisteth" (Pp. 342-344.) 

Though he gives an exposition and makes 
a defense of this Article of the Creed, he jus- 
tifies the assertion that it is not to be found in 
the Scriptures. Hear what he says on this 
head : 

"Now these words as they lie in the Creed, 
He descended into hell, are nowhere formally and 
expressly delivered in the Scriptures ; nor can 
we find any one place in which the Holy Ghost 
hath said in express and plain terms, that Christ, 
as he died and w T as buried, so he descended into 
hell Wherefore being these words of the Creed 
are not formally expressed in the Scriptures, our 
inquiry must be in what scriptures they are con- 
tained virtually; that is, where the Holy Ghost 
doth deliver the same doctrine, in what word 
soever, which is contained, and to be understood 
in this expression, He descended into hell. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 201 

"Now several places of Scripture have been 
produced by the ancients as delivering this truth, 
of which some, without question, prove it not; 
but three there are which have been always 
thought of greatest validity to confirm this Arti- 
cle." (P. 344.) 

Notice particularly that Pearson teaches here 
that the descent of Christ into hell was not in 
the Creed during the first three centuries of the 
Church, and that it is nowhere formally and 
expressly delivered in the Scriptures, and that 
there is not one single place where the Holy 
Ghost hath said in express and plain terms that 
Christ descended into hell. He inquires in what 
scriptures the words he descended into hell are con- 
tained virtually — not in express and plain terms 
— and mentions three which are thought of great- 
est validity to establish the doctrine — Eph. iv. 9, 
1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, Acts ii. 25-31. The first and 
second of these texts he explains, and shows 
that it is doubtful if they contain and teach the 
doctrine even virtually. We are left, therefore, 
with but one scripture, according to this friend 
and advocate of this doctrine, upon which to make 
a mere inference in its favor. And this, the third, 
last, and vital text, clearly understood, and cor- 
rectly expounded, is as far from establishing the 
descent of Christ, as claimed in the Creed at the 
present time, as any other text can be. Brought 



202 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

from the sixteenth Psalm by St. Peter, it is 
adduced to prove from and by the sacred writings 
the resurrection of Christ from the grave, or the 
dead. If the Bible taught, specifically and be- 
yond a doubt, this Article as it now stands in the 
Creed, it would nevertheless be a manifest and 
gross perversion of this text to interpret it as 
containing this doctrine even indirectly. It is, 
therefore, as certain as certainty can be, that the 
doctrine taught in he descended into hell is not in 
the Bible, but is of a piece with purgatory and 
kindred superstitions. 

The intermediate state, then, can derive no 
support and secure no defense from this Article, 
which, without any warrant of Scripture, crept 
into the Creed centuries after the apostles. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 203 



CHAPTER X. 

OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 

Particular words are claimed in defense of, and 
appealed to in support of, the theory that all 
souls, at death, are received into a temporary 
abode, where they are to be detained until the 
resurrection, without respect to their goodness or 
badness, happiness or misery. The primary 
meaning of these words is claimed as a refutation 
of the theory that souls, at death, go immediately 
to heaven or hell. These words are the Hebrew 
sheol, and the Greek hades and gehenna. It is 
said by biblical critics, among them Dr. George 
Campbell and Mr. Wesley, that yeewa, gehenna, 
is the word used in the New Testament for hell, 
the place of future punishment, and that sheol in 
Hebrew, and hades in Greek, mean the grave, the 
state of the dead in general, the invisible world, 
and not hell, as we now use and understand that 
term. These critics find fault with our English 
version because these words, sheol and hades, are 
in so many places rendered hell. That these 
words should, in many places where they occur, 



204 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

be rendered grave, as referring to the state of the 
dead, the under-world, the shades below, and 
should very rarely be translated hell, the place 
of the damned, and the abode of devils, is, per- 
haps, not questioned. To say these words should 
never be translated hell is, in the estimation of 
judicious and competent judges, saying too much. 
Mr. Richard Watson, giving in his Biblical Dic- 
tionary the substance of Dr. Campbell's criticisms 
on these particular words, cites the following 
instances where the reference of sheol is to future 
tvoe: Job xxi. 13; Ps. ix. 17, 18; Prov. v. 5; 
ix. 18; xxiiL 14; and the following where 
the reference of hades is to the same: Luke 
xvi. 23. 

It occurs to us that it would be extremely 
difficult to give any reasonable exposition of 
these texts upon any other hypothesis than that 
they refer to future punishment in hell. If the 
"wicked shall be turned into hell and all the 
nations that forget God," only means that they 
shall be turned into the grave — the place where 
all must go — then there is nothing declared of 
the wicked and the nations which forget God, which 
is not equally true of the righteous and the 
nations which retain God in their memory. What 
is declared of " the strange woman," when it is 
said, " Her feet go down to death, her steps take 
hold on kett" which is not strictly true of every 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 205 

woman, if there is no reference here to any thing 
but the grave — if there he no allusion to infamy, 
woe, and punishment? And so of the other 
texts above cited. 

But if it can be demonstrated that all these 
texts mean the grave, and not the place of future 
punishment, even then, we cannot allow the 
assumption that souls do not go to heaven or 
hell when they leave the body. We do not 
deny, but believe most firmly, that sheol and 
hades are used in many places where they occur 
in the Scriptures to denote the grave, the state 
of the dead, the invisible world. This is, how- 
ever, all that we can grant. We cannot allow 
that in every place where they occur, they 
have no reference to hell, the abode of the 
damned. But the success and truth of our 
theory does not depend upon this. We may 
grant that sheol and hades should never be ren- 
dered hell in the sense in which we now use 
that term, and that the word gehenna, which 
is only used about a dozen times in the New 
Testament, is used to designate hell, the place 
of the damned, and then we have admitted 
nothing which makes against the theory that 
souls go, at death, either to heaven or hell. 
We do not deny that the invisible world is the 
receptacle of the dead. Man dying, goes to 
the shades below— to the veiled world ; but this 



206 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

is not all — the soul, also, goes to heaven or 
hell, as it is righteous or wicked. 

The argument founded upon the meaning of 
these particular words in support of the interme- 
diate state, while it is as slender as it is fanciful, 
is as weak as any conceivable thing could be, and 
literally amounts to nothing. 

While we have this subject under considera- 
tion, we may ask, as we pass, if the Old Testa- 
ment does not somewhere, in some way, speak 
of, and teach, the existence of a place of future 
punishment ? The argument founded here upon 
the critical meaning of sheol, hades, and gehenna, 
reminds us of the logic of the Universalists 
against future punishment. And if we are not 
greatly mistaken, one could as correctly argue 
from sheol and hades meaning the state of the 
dead — the grave — that there is no hell, and even 
no heaven, in the future state, as he could argue 
from it that the soul does not go at death to 
heaven or hell. The logic is the same in both 
cases. But as there is so much stress laid on the 
critical meaning of these particular words, we 
must pursue the same still farther. The truth 
is simply this : Sheol and hades are commonly 
used as general terms to express the state and 
condition of the dead. Referring in a general 
way to the body and soul, these words convey 
the idea that the dead are in the grave— the 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 207 

world beyond the sight and walks of men. They 
express indefinitely the state of the dead. While 
in many places these words are in their meanings 
so indefinite as to justify no conclusion as to 
whether the individuals dead are in heaven or in 
hell, they nowhere express definitely, nor in any 
way justify, the inference that the dead are not in 
heaven and not in hell, A general avowal of some 
indefinite thing does not necessarily negative any 
and every thing else. Let us illustrate this in- 
definite use of terms. Of Josephus we say he is 
dead — has gone to the grave — he is in the invisi- 
ble world — in the land of spirits. Here we de- 
clare a truth, and all that is known of the state 
and abode of Josephus, and just what is generally 
declared by sheol and hades when applied indefi- 
nitely to the dead. If in what we have said in 
these expressions of the condition and abode 
of Josephus, we have not said that he is in 
heaven, and have not said that he is in hell — 
and we admit that Ave have not — it is equally 
true that we have not said that he is not in 
heaven, and that w r e have not said that he is 
not in hell. Here is another example of the 
same nature. A citizen of America travels into 
the Old World. In speaking of him, we say he 
has gone to Europe. This is a general term re- 
ferring to a division of country in the Eastern 
Hemisphere. In this we have not said that the 



208 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

man has gone to England, and yet that may be 
the very division of Europe to which he has 
gone, and in which he is residing for the time 
being. 

A farther explanation of this point may be 
given in some of the common expressions of the 
day. Of an individual who has died w r e say " he 
has gone to his long home " — " has gone the way 
of all the earth" — "has gone to the grave" — 
"has gone to the unknown land" — "has gone 
whence no traveler returns" — "has gone to the 
other world "— " has gone to the land of spirits " 
— " has gone to eternity." These are all general 
ahd indefinite expressions, like sheol and hades, 
concerning the change and condition of the man 
in death and his inhabitancy of the future state. 
None of these expressions declare definitely or 
indefinitely that the dead man is in heaven or 
that he is in hell — neither do they declare that 
he is out of one or the other of these places. 
And it can be true that he has gone to the 
invisible world, and at the same time true that he 
is in heaven or in hell. Just as we speak in a 
general way and indefinitely of the abode and 
state of a man who is dead, when we say, " He 
has gone to eternity," we speak in a general way 
and indefinitely of the state of the dead when Ave 
use sheol and hades in their general and indefinite 
meanings. Pause here. If this be true — and 



THE STATE OE TUE DEAD. 209 

true it must be — then the argument founded upon 
the meaning and use of these particular words is 
without force, and the conclusions drawn from 
the same are mere sophisms. The intermediate 
state stands by the side of this argument a 
mere fabrication. 

Out of the quarry of their imagination have 
the well-skilled builders of this wonderful fabric 
— the intermediate state — brought forth another 
stone polished after their own similitude. They 
tell us -Abraham's bosom 7 ' is the place styled by 
our Lord " paradise/' and that paradise is not 
heaven. Thev call it the antechamber of heaven, 
the porch of heaven. This paradise is the re- 
ceptacle of holy souls till the resurrection. Once 
more, they inform us that hades, where Dives 
lifted up his eyes in torments, is not hell, but the 
invisible regions where unholy souls are detained 
until the judgment — we suppose, though they 
have not called it by that name, thev consider 
it the antechamber of hell. These authors sepa- 
rate and blend, divide and unite, distinguish and 
confound, these places in a remarkable manner, 
and involve themselves and their positions in 
confusion and contradiction. Following them in 
their winding course, we get about this view of 
the matter : Paradise is a division or part of 
heaven, for it is the antechamber of heaven. 
The porch or antechamber of a house is a part 



210 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

of the house. Paradise is not heaven, and no 
part of heaven, for all holy souls are in paradise, 
and they are not in heaven nor in any part of 
heaven. The invisible world — the receptacle of 
the dead — hades— is both a part of heaven and a 
part of hell, for paradise, the receptacle of holy 
souls, is the antechamber of heaven, and hades, 
on the other side of the gulf — the place of tor- 
ment and the receptacle of unholy souls — is the 
antechamber of hell. All souls, consequently, 
are in heaven and out of heaven, in hell and out 
of hell. 

But, to consider the point more directly. We 
deny the proposition, if proposition it can be 
called, that paradise is not heaven. It is supposed 
the critics will not claim that Trapadetaog, paradise, 
and adrjg, hades, are synonymous ; and yet this 
must be maintained by our opponents to make 
'them consistent in their positions. But the truth 
is, when paradise is used, referring to the future 
state, it means heaven, where God and Christ, 
angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, 
have their special and lasting abode. Paradise 
and heaven are synonymous terms, and are used 
interchangeably. St. Paul uses them as such and 
in this manner in his Second Epistle to the 
Corinthians. At the twelfth chapter, speaking 
of a man whom he knew in Christ, in the second 
verse, he says he was " caught up to the third 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 211 

heaven/' and in the fourth verse, u caught up into 
paradise." Mr. Richard Watson, in his Biblical 
Dictionary, on the article Paradise, remarks : 
" The term paradise is obviously used in the 
New Testament as another word for heaven : by 
our Lord — Luke xxiii. 43 — by the Apostle Paul 
— 2 Cor. xii. 4 — and in the Apocalypse — ii. 7." 
Observe, Mr. Watson here refers to the very text 
— Luke xxiii. 43— referred to by Mr. Wesley 
and Bishop McTyeire. He says it is used as 
another word for heaven ; they say it is not so 
used. 

Christ, on the cross, promises the dying thief 
who asks to be remembered when he comes into 
his kingdom, " To-day shalt thou be with me in 
paradise." This promise was complied with, and 
Christ accompanied the soul of the penitent thief 
that very day into paradise. On the morning of 
the third day after his crucifixion, having risen 
from the dead, Christ appears to Mary Magdalene, 
and enjoins upon her, u Touch me not," and assigns 
as the reason of the prohibition, " For I am not 
yet ascended to my Father." This is appealed to 
as authority for, and in proof of, the assertion 
that paradise is not heaven. But a careful and 
thorough analysis of the whole transaction and 
the entire language of our Lord will show that 
there is nothing inconsistent with the belief and 
averment that the ghost, or spirit, of Christ, on 



212 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

the day of his crucifixion, accompanied the soul 
of the penitent thief to heaven, the place called 
by him paradise. He may, in his spirit, have 
gone with the soul of the thief to heaven, where 
his Father has his throne and dwelling-place, and 
then, on the morning of his resurrection, have 
truly said, In my human body, raised from the 
dead, " I am not yet ascended to my Father." 
To a mind divested of a preconceived opinion, 
this will be quite apparent. But there is another 
view of the language of Christ to Mary on this 
occasion, which equally saps the foundation and 
destroys the argument of our opponents. We 
cannot do better than give it in the language of 
Dr. Adam Clarke : 

" From Matthew xxviii. 9, it appears that some 
of the women held him by the feet and worshiped 
him. This probably Mary did; and our Lord 
seems to have spoken to her to this effect : ' Spend 
no longer time with me now : I am not going im- 
mediately to heaven — you will have several op- 
portunities of seeing me again; but go and tell 
my disciples that I am, by and by, to ascend 
to my Father and God, who is your Father and 
God also. Therefore, let them take courage.' ' : 
(Com. St. John xx. 17.) 

Take, then, either view of the text, that 
Christ, in his body, since his resurrection, had 
not ascended to his Father, or that he was not 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 213 

going to ascend, yet awhile, to his Father, both 
of which were true in fact, whichever is the true 
meaning of his language to Mary, and there is no 
evidence sustaining the conclusion that he was 
not, on the day of his crucifixion, in heaven 
with the thief, according to his promise. 

No point of doctrine can be sustained by that 
which is itself unsustained and untrue. The 
proposition that paradise is not heaven lies before 
us unsustained and totally untrue. Consequently, 
the doctrine of the intermediate state is not 
established by this argument. 



214 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER XI. 

OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 

It is argued that upon any other hypothesis 
than that souls are detained in a temporary abode, 
outside of heaven and hell, until the general 
resurrection and the last day, without any sen- 
tence passed upon them, the judgment-day would 
be too empty to be solemn, and too uncertain 
to be just. It is maintained that there is but 
one judgment-day, and that it is appointed to 
be at the end of time. That then, the judgment 
being universal, every one will receive a final 
and everlasting destiny, that then, the right- 
eous and the wicked hear their sentence together, 
and for the first time. It is, pushing the point 
to its conclusion, argued that if as fast as men 
die, they are sent to heaven or hell, the judg- 
ment-day is only for the portion of the race 
living at the time the world comes to an end, 
or that those sentenced to hell, and adjudged 
to heaven, will be brought to a second trial, 
involving the possibility and probability of a 
reversal of the first sentence; or in the third 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 215 

place, that they are only brought out of their 
abodes to be remanded. Our opponents, in con- 
nection with these suppositions, talk of the first 
sentence being unjust — no adequate purpose being 
secured — and the righteous being put in jeopardy 
of their crowns and trembling at a capricious ad- 
ministration. 

What is herein set forth must not be passed 
over indifferently, but in view of the importance 
attached to the same and its weight with many 
minds, must be put in the crucible and thoroughly 
tested. 

First, then, how much of the above do w^e 
admit, and what of it reject, and how dispose of 
the whole ? 

Though we do not claim quite as much wisdom 
and knowledge as some others in determining the 
purposes and justice of the Almighty in the ap- 
pointment, business, and awards of the judgment- 
day, no one can believe more firmly in the cer- 
tainty of such a day, and respect more highly 
what is believed to be the purposes of that day 
than we. As our controversy is with those who 
admit the doctrine of a judgment, it would be a 
digression to dwell upon the proofs of such a day 
to come. There is to be, at the end of time, a 
general judgment-day. At the end of time, it is 
not before; general, it is universal. Not only 
the portion of the human race living at the con- 



216 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

summation of time shall be assembled at the bar 
of this court, but all men, living and dead, of all 
ages and all countries, good and bad, and all 
angels, holy and unholy. It will be the first and 
last tribunal before which the universe will be 
arraigned, and from which it will receive its 
doom. God has appointed this day to judge the 
world in righteousness by Jesus Christ. Cer- 
tainly it will not be too empty to be solemn, nor 
too uncertain in its decisions and awards to be 
just. It will doubtless condemn many earthly 
decisions, and revoke many of the sentences of 
earthly tribunals, but its proceedings shall be in 
righteousness, and its verdicts according to truth 
and justice. Too empty to be solemn ! More 
than Sinai's thunders are heard — the voice of the 
archangel and the trump of God swallow every 
other sound, and peal through the universe — 
earth, heaven and hell, life and death, hear! 
More than Sinai's lightnings are seen — the 
brightness of Christ in his coming appears — 
his accumulated wrath, the glare of whose flames 
darkens every other light, is in process of revela- 
tion — the earth reels out of its place — the stars 
fall from heaven — the sun goes out in darkness — 
the heavens, as a parchment scroll, are together 
rolled — the whole frame of universal nature dis- 
solves in liquid flame — the thrones are erected — 
the triune God attends — the books are opened — 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 217 

the intelligences of the universe assemble before 
the face of the Judge — before the tribunal from 
which there is no appeal — the day made for all 
other days has dawned — the clay which is to test 
the deeds of men, angels, and devils — life and 
death, heaven and hell, time and eternity — the 
doom of the universe — are all concentrated and 
suspended here in this great judgment-day ! Too 
empty to be solemn ! If this be emptiness, then 
truly, there is nothing serious, nothing real in all 
the realms of God, nothing serious, nothing real 
in any or all the transactions of time and eternity. 
Believing the general judgment is to be at the 
end of time — that all will then be judged — that 
neither the righteous dead nor the righteous 
living will have any occasion to tremble with the 
apprehension that they are under a fanciful and 
fickle administration, and that they will in no 
degree and in no way be liable to lose their 
crowns — and that the wicked will have no op- 
portunity and no hope of escaping hell — that 
there will be no reversal of any thing pertaining 
essentially to the abode and sentence of the dead, 
we deny the correctness and truth of the charges 
here made upon our theory. We deny that it is 
logically true that the wicked going to hell and 
the righteous to heaven at death, make the judg- 
ment too empty to be solemn and too uncertain 
to be just, and deny that the possibility or proba- 



218 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

bility of the reversal of the doom of the dead is 
involved in the theory. As our opponents have 
merely asserted and have not proven the diffi- 
culties and absurdities, which they have charged 
upon our theory, to exist, and as we are not 
logically bound to prove a negative, we might 
leave the whole with the denial, but we will sub- 
join the reasons which make good the denial. 

The design of the general judgment is to exalt 
the declarative glory of God, manifest his justice, 
and vindicate his administration. Examining and 
rewarding each and every one before an assem- 
bled universe will accomplish this end, and there 
is nothing in the designs and transactions of this 
dreadful day which, in the least, involves our 
theory in the difficulties and absurdities charged 
upon it. 

But the high privilege and happy estate of 
Enoch and Elijah clear the doctrine of immediate 
entrance upon an abode in heaven, at death, of 
these charges brought against it. Enoch was 
"translated that he should not see death, and 
was not found because God had translated him," 
and " Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 
They entered upon the inheritance of the saints 
in light without passing under the empire of 
death, which is the destiny of all others of the 
race. It is true, Bishop McTyeire has expressed 
the opinion that their bodies may have been 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 219 

buried by God, no man knowing where or how, 
and that the body of each is a seed sown 
somewhere, which has not yet been raised. The 
Bishop maintains that in glorified bodies they 
could not have ascended to heaven, for Christ 
must go to heaven in a risen and glorified body 
before any one else. But all this is mere assump- 
tion. There is not a word in the Bible author- 
izing any such conjectures. The Scriptures tell 
us that God buried Moses, that he translated 
Enoch that he should not see death, and Elijah 
went up by a whirlwind into heaven. We have 
as much authority for asserting Moses was trans- 
lated without dying and without burial, as that 
Enoch and Elijah were buried. The apostle does 
say, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and 
become the first-fruits of them that slept," but 
Enoch and Elijah never slept in death. And 
nowhere do the Scriptures teach that Christ's 
body was the first to enter heaven, and it is 
evident the apostle does not mean by his being 
the first-fruits that he was the first to enter heaven 
in a glorified body. "Now is Christ risen from the 
dead" — not ascended to heaven — "and become the 
first-fruits of them that slept." His relation to 
the dead in a risen, and not in an ascended body, 
constitutes him the first-fruits. This is quite 
clear and very certain. And it is as certainly 
true that Enoch and Elijah, going into heaven 



220 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

with their bodies, upon which death never passed, 
are now there, awaiting the general judgment- 
day, as any thing taught by Holy Writ. And 
this truth dissipates the grave charges preferred 
here against the doctrine we are trying to defend. 

Again, the charges made against the doctrine 
of immediate entrance, at death, into heaven or 
hell, lie with equal force against the intermediate 
state. The authors who defend this theory, 
assert most positively that the character of the 
dead is unchangeably fixed, and that their doom 
is irrevocably sealed. To quote again from the 
sermon of Bishop McTyeire : 

"No change of character in this disembodied 
state, in this spirit-land. In hades is no dispen- 
sation for making men better who were bad here. 
' We must all appear before the judgment-seat of 
Christ, that every one may receive the things 
done in his body, according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad.' The things done in 
the body are to form the basis of judgment. This 
life is given unto men to work out their salvation 
with fear and trembling. This is the day of sal- 
vation; secure it now or never. After death, 
judgment; and judgment proceeds upon and 
reflects on the life that went before death — that 
only. No amendment, no conversion is provided 
for between death and the judgment. Character 
is fixed then, though destiny be not pronounced. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 221 

Hence, correctly it may be said of one dying 
in his sins, He has gone to hell — gone beyond 
grace and effectual prayer — gone, beyond remedy. 
He which is filthy must be filthy still. Gone, 
gone to hell. Work while it is clay ; the night 
cometh. Do this work of salvation now, and 
with thy might, 'for there is no work, nor device, 
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither 
thou goest.' Ye unholy who enter there, leave 
hope behind. Likewise, when the righteous die, 
we may safely say, not only that they rest from 
their labors, but by anticipation, that they have 
gone to heaven. ' The righteous perisheth, and 
no man layeth it to heart ; and merciful men are 
taken aw^ay, none considering that the righteous 
is taken away from the evil to come ; he shall 
enter into peace' No temptations, no lapses be- 
yond the grave ; he that endures till then, en- 
dures to the end of probation, and a crown is his. 
He that liveth and believeth in Christ shall never 
die; he that believeth, though he die, yet he 
shall live ; but he that dieth in unbelief shall 
neither believe nor live. 

" Happiness and woe in this middle state." 
Now look at this intermediate state. Character 
is fixed. It may he said of one dying in his sins, 
he has gone to hell. When the righteous die, tve 
may say not only that they rest from their labors, 
bid, by anticijmtion, that they have gone to heaven. 



222 THE STATE OF THE DEAD, 

Happiness and ivoe are in this middle state. Judg- 
ment proceeds upon and reflects on the life thai went 
before death- — that only. All the tvicked and the 
righteous in this middle state are awaiting the judg- 
ment-day. Now look at the opposing theory. 
At deaths character is fixed. The righteous rest 
from their labors and go to heaven, ivhere they are 
transcendently happy. The tvicked go to hell, where 
they suffer the tortures of woe. Judgment proceeds 
upon and reflects on the life that went before death 
—that only. The righteous in heaven, and the 
tvicked in hell, are aivaiiing the judgment-day. 

Here are the two theories side by side, and in 
contrast the one with the other. Comparing these 
theories, it is seen that there is nothing in the 
opposing theory justifying the charge of making 
the judgment empty, uncertain, without solemnity 
and justice, reversing dooms, revoking sentences, 
and bringing out of abodes merely to remand, 
which is not as emphatically contained in, and as 
clearly set forth by, the theory of the intermedi- 
ate state. If the theory which we maintain 
should be rejected because of the allegations 
here made, so ought the theory which we combat, 
and then all must subscribe to the doctrine of 
purgatory, where character is changed, or some 
other dogma must be invented to meet the difficul- 
ties and supply the destitution caused by the fail- 
ure of all dogmas heretofore held upon the subject. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 223 

One other matter, by way of argument; touch- 
ing the manner in which the immediate entrance, 
at death, into heaven or hell, affects the judg- 
ment, and we have done on this point. What we 
now present, though all besides should fail, demon- 
strates that our doctrine does not, as charged, 
impair and contravene the judgment. 

The devils — the angels which kept not their 
first estate — are in hell. So far as we know, 
this is not denied, and if it were, the Bible 
sufficiently authenticates it. Bishop McTyeire, 
speaking of the torments endured by the wicked 
in the intermediate state, which he assigns them, 
says: " These torments have one mitigation- — 
they are not hell, gehenna, with the devil and his 
angels." He here acknowledges that the devil 
and his angels are in hell — gehenna. 

The devil and the other fallen angels were 
once good and pure angels, in a holy estate, and 
in a happy condition, but committing some sin or 
sins, we know not when or how, God judged 
them, condemned them, and banished them, 
under sentence, to hell. Here they dwell, though 
they may be permitted, for reasons unknown 
to us, to wander, at times, to other parts of the 
dominions of the Almighty. Their sentence is 
sealed, their doom fixed. There is no changing 
of the decree of God concerning them, no re- 
voking the verdict which assigns them their 



224 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

portion in the lake of fire prepared first for 
them. 

Again, the devils will be summoned to the 
general judgment, where and when they, as 
well as men, will be judged. We are not aware 
that any one holds contrary to this. St. Peter 
and St. Jude teach us both that devils are in hell, 
and that they will be judged at the general 
judgment-day. In speaking of the works and 
damnation of false teachers, St. Peter says: 
" For if God spared not the angels that sinned, 
but cast them down to hell, and delivered them 
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto 
judgment." (2 Pet. ii. 4.) Writing to those who 
w r ere sanctified by God the Father, and preserved 
in Jesus Christ, and called, and warning them 
against apostasy, St. Jude declares, "And the 
angels which kept not their first estate, but left 
their own habitation, he hath reserved in ever- 
lasting chains under darkness unto the judgment 
of the great day." (Ver. 6.) 

According to the teachings of the advocates of 
the intermediate state, as devils are now in hell, 
the judgment, in their case, will be too empty to 
be solemn or too uncertain to be just. But to 
say this is to condemn the transactions of the 
judgment-day in advance, and to charge God 
with folly in appointing it, and with injustice 
in holding it. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 225 

Mark, the devils being now in hell does not 
involve the general judgment to come in empti- 
ness, uncertainty, and injustice, and does not 
involve the probability or possibility of the re- 
versal of the sentence already pronounced against 
the devils. Then the souls of men, going to hell 
at death, and being there before the general judg- 
ment, do not involve these things, and the 
charging them upon the theory is the barest 
assumption. And here we pause. 

The advocates of the doctrine that no one has 
yet been saved in heaven and no one sent to hell, 
accumulate their proofs as though they could, by 
their number, supply the strength of which they 
are destitute. Another point pressed, the force 
of which is sought to be magnified, is that human 
actions, teachings, and influences, living after 
their authors are dead, have not, at death, cul- 
minated in their results, and will not before 
the end of time, and that this being true, and 
God not giving an insight into the future, no 
sentence can be made before the end of the 
world in which the soul sentenced can acquiesce. 

It is verily true that human actions and teach- 
ings live in their influences and work out re- 
sults after the authors are dead. Abel, by the 
faith which actuated him in offering an acceptable 
sacrifice to God, being dead, yet speaketh. St. 
Paul, by his writings and labors, is still exer- 
8 



226 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

cising an influence upon the world, and extending 
the conquest of the Redeemer's kingdom, and 
will, until the hope of the resurrection, for which 
he was called in question, is realized by himself 
and all others who fall asleep in Jesus. Mr. 
Wesley, by his energy, zeal, and piety, gave 
to Christianity, in his day, an impulse which 
has not yet expended its force, and shall not, 
for its encircling and widening waves shall extend 
to and influence the most distant ages yet to 
come. Byron, Bolingbroke, Hume, Tom Paine, 
Volney, and Voltaire, all dead, are still exerting 
an influence in the world among men, and, from 
their ungodly lives, unholy teachings, and infidel 
writings, there still emanates, as from a carcass, 
a stench, and proceeds a contagious atmosphere, 
which carry blight and death throughout the 
circles of human society. All this will be 
reckoned in the general judgment at the last 
day, and will have to do in making up the 
reward for eternity. But from all this, none 
can in truth assert, or in reason infer, that 
the soul, at death, will be any the less prepared 
to acquiesce in its doom than it will when time 
has accomplished its mission and terminated. 

We cannot assert that the sinner will acquiesce 
in his sentence at death, nor can we assert that 
he will acquiesce in his sentence at the general 
judgment at the end of time. That he will ever 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 227 

be reconciled thereto, we do not believe, though 
every sinner will doubtless feel and know his 
sentence to be according to the principles of a 
just administration. If enough will be revealed 
against the sinner at the general judgment to 
force him to acquiesce in his sentence, there is 
also enough against him at death, of which he 
cannot be ignorant, to effect the same end. The 
deeds of the life with their accompanying results 
up to the time of death, and the corrupt charac- 
ter and wicked nature with which the sinner 
leaves the world, are enough to fix his sentence 
and seal his doom for ever, our opponents them- 
selves being judges. Then there is certainly 
enough to force him to acquiesce, if there be such 
a thing as the acquiescence of a sinner in the 
sentence w T hich appoints him his portion in hell 
with the devil and his angels. And if the sinner 
possesses, at death, enough of feeling and knowl- 
edge to suffer punishment in the intermediate 
state and acquiesce therein, he certainly may 
and will have, at the same period, sufficient 
knowledge to acquiesce in a sentence which con- 
signs him to hell. And the righteous man taken 
to heaven at death, in the holiness of heart which 
he has then attained, can, in the fullness of the 
knowledge which he possesses, acquiesce in his 
condition, and magnify the grace of God by 
which he has been saved and brought to so 



228 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

rich and glorious an inheritance. But suppose 
the soul does not acquiesce ? Is that any reason 
that it should not be sent to hell, or any evidence 
that it is not ? From the statements made above, 
it is certain that if the sinner may refuse, at 
death, to acquiesce in a sentence which consigns 
him to hell, he may refuse at the general judg- 
ment-day. And if his refusal to acquiesce is a 
reason for not sentencing him, at death, to hell, 
and sending him thither, it may be a reason at 
the last day. And if this is an evidence that he 
is not sent, at death, to hell, it may be an evidence 
that he is not to be sent to hell from the judg- 
ment-bar at the last day. 

The fact that works live and accomplish results 
after the death of their authors, would have 
weight in settling the question now pending, 
did the harvest thus produced effect a change in 
the character and condition of the dead. But 
this is not the case, according to the decision of 
our opponents themselves. Or if it were true 
that rewards cease at the general judgment, 
leaving no opportunity to punish the wicked 
and bless the righteous for the harvest of evil 
and good which their works have produced in the 
interval between death and the judgment, then 
this would be an item in determining the question 
before us. But after the judgment-day, there is 
an eternity in which to punish the wicked and 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 229 

bless the righteous. In this eternity, to follow 
the judgment, there will be an opportunity to 
punish for all the evil results of the works of this 
life — embracing all the consequences which may 
have crowded into the interval between death 
and the resurrection, and also an opportunity to 
bless for all the good results accumulated in this 
interval. 

Surveying the subject in all its bearings, it is 
manifest that the results accumulated by works 
after death, and an ignorance of the future, form 
no barrier to the reception of the doctrine that 
men dying go immediately to heaven or hell. 



230 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 

Hitherto we have been removing objections 
and refuting arguments urged against the doctrine 
of immediate entrance, at death, into heaven or 
hell. This accomplished, a brief examination of 
Hebrews xi. 39, 40, which is the text selected by 
Bishop McTyeire as the foundation of his ser- 
mon, may now be made, after which a few posi- 
tive proofs of the theory which we hold shall be 
appended. Not from any exposition which he 
gives of it, but from the doctrine w T bich he builds 
upon it, the Bishop makes this text teach that 
the Old Testament saints are detained from en- 
tering upon the inheritance provided in heaven 
for the righteous, and that they cannot and shall 
not enter upon it until those of the gospel dis- 
pensation enter, and that all of every dispensa- 
tion shall enter upon it for the first time and 
together. Assuming this as the doctrine of the 
text, makes that they without us should not be made 
perfect, an interruption in the progress of the 
subject had in hand by the apostle, and disjoints, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 231 

dissevers, and confuses the whole text. No one 
can maintain this view and connect this part of 
the text with what comes before it and what 
follows after it, neither can he give an intelligible 
explanation of what precedes and succeeds it. 
We should follow the apostle in the leading and 
general idea which he is presenting. Giving an 
exposition agreeing with, and consequent upon, 
the thread of the author's subject, w r e shall see 
at once that the text affords no ground for the 
opinion that the dead saints of past ages are 
detained from their reward outside of heaven, 
waiting until the glorification, at the last day, 
of the saints of the gospel dispensation for their 
reward. The text teaches no such thing, neither 
does it embrace the idea that the coming of the 
saints of this dispensation and the rewarding of 
the same shall enhance the reward of the saints 
of former dispensations. 

Dr. XL Hammond and others give an exposi- 
tion of this text which, if we should follow, 
would establish us in the fact that the text 
' does not in the least look to and sustain the 
opinion that the saints of the former ages are 
detained out of heaven, awaiting their crowns 
until the coming and consummation of the saints 
of this dispensation. Hammond says : "By this 
it is already apparent that eternal Miss in another 
w r orld was not the matter of this promise" etc. 



232 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

But we cannot adopt an exposition merely be- 
cause it supports a theory which we are laboring 
to maintain, and as we conceive that this exposi- 
tion of Hammond does not give the meaning 
of the apostle, we reject it. The apostle, in 
addressing the Hebrew Christians, writes to in- 
fluence and encourage them to continue steadfast 
in their adherence to Jesus, and to persevere 
in running the race set before them under the 
chastisements and persecutions which they should 
be called to endure. In order to this, he points 
them to those of former ages, to Gideon, Samson, 
Barak, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, 
and others, who endured trials, scourgings, etc., 
and accomplished great and noble deeds, and 
died without receiving the promised reward in 
this life, but received it in heaven. For they 
failed not of the reward finally and for ever. 
If they had, then there would have been nothing 
in their case encouraging to others. 

In as few words and as short a space as pos- 
sible, we wdll give w T hat we perceive to be the 
entire and manifest view of the apostle. Your 
life as Christians must be after this manner : In 
this world you must believe, labor, and endure. 
In the race which, you are running, you will have 
trials, sufferings, persecutions, etc. From these, 
as the servants of Gocl, you cannot be exempt. 
The prize is at the end of the race. You will 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 233 

not receive your reward and crown here in this 
life. This is the day and place of labor and 
not of reward. You will attain the prize and 
receive your reward when the race is over, in 
the future state in heaven. This is the manner 
in which God deals with his servants. It was in 
this way he dealt with the saints of previous 
dispensations. They "had trial of cruel niock- 
ings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and 
imprisonment; they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the 
sword ; they wandered about in sheepskins and 
goatskins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; 
of whom, the world was not worthy ; they wan- 
dered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens 
and caves of the earth," and "received not the 
promise" — the reward and blessing in this life 
— but they received them in heaven when they 
passed away from this world, God having pro- 
vided some better thing for them there. And 
the blessing w 7 hich they have received you shall 
receive also — for you shall not be left out of 
the inheritance which they enjoy, but shall 
follow on and be made perfect with them where 
they now are. By this, be encouraged in the 
race which you are running. It is evident that 
this gives the scope of the apostle's intention 
in this text, for he, immediately, carrying on 
the subject, encourages them by the example 



234 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

of Jesus, "who for the joy that was set be- 
fore him, endured the cross, despising the shame, 
and is set down at the right hand of the throne 
of God/' 

Notwithstanding the expositions of various 
authors to the contrary, Luke xvi. 22, 23, may 
be given as positive evidence of the truth of 
the theory which carries the righteous to heaven 
and sends the wicked to hell immediately upon 
the decease of the body. "And it came to 
pass that the beggar died, and was carried by 
the angels into Abraham's bosom." Dr. Ham- 
mond paraphrases this text thus : " Into heaven 
to be placed next to Abraham the father of 
the faithful." In this paraphrase he refers to 
Matt. viii. 11 : "And I say unto you, That 
many shall come from the east and west, and 
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus, in- 
stead of following the fictions and fancies of 
the Jews, intended to teach, in this scripture 
concerning Lazarus, that he was, as the above 
paraphrase imports, in the heaven and home 
of the righteous. Mr. Wesley, following, in 
his explanation of this text, the common and 
blind opinions of the Jews, and others, instead 
of the doctrine of Jesus, makes Abraham's bo- 
som, and what he calls the antechamber of heaven, 
and what he claims to be paradise, the same, and 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 235 

consequently concludes that Lazarus, being in 
Abraham's bosom, was not in heaven. Dr. 
Milner claims this text in proof of purgatory. 
In his letter upon purgatory, on pages 262, 263, 
End of Controversy, he writes : " To come now 
to the New Testament : What place, I ask, must 
that be, which our Saviour calls 'Abraham's bo- 
som,' where the soul of Lazarus reposed — Luke 
xvi. 22 — among the other just souls, till he by 
his sacred passion paid their ransom? Not 
heaven, otherwise Dives would have addressed 
himself to God, instead of Abraham; but evi- 
dently a middle state, as St. Augustine teaches." 
The doctrines of Wesley and Milner, which they 
each attempt to prove from this verse of Scrip- 
ture, are closely allied and much alike, and this 
text will go as far to prove those of the one 
as of the other, and we would wrest it, as we 
should, from the grasp of both these men. The 
argument of Milner that Dives calling upon 
Abraham instead of God, is evidence that Abra- 
ham and Lazarus were not in heaven, is such 
silly trifling that it merits no farther consider- 
ation. 

" The rich man also died, and was buried ; and 
in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and 
seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom." 
Here we have the fact declared in the strongest 
language that the rich man was, immediately 



236 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

on his decease, in a place of conscious misery. 
Even granting that ddrjg, hades, means the invisi- 
ble world — the receptacle of the dead — and 
yet the rich man being in anguish, or as Ham- 
mond paraphrases it, "in a place of tormenting 
flames/' makes it conclusive that he was in hell, 
the place of the damned and the abode of devils. 
The only way to escape this conclusion is to hold 
with Mr. Wesley, that God has provided Uuo 
places of torment in the future world ; one, yiewa, 
hell, the other outside of yeewa, hell, though near 
by it. (See Wesley's sermon on the Rich Man 
and Lazarus.) Bloomfieid, while contending that 
ev adxi, in this 23d verse, must be taken in the 
signification of the invisible state, adopts in his 
note on the 25th verse, a paraphrase by Bishop 
Sanderson, which appears to us to admit that 
Dives is in hell. If Dr. A. Clarke's comment 
on the punishment of the rich man does not 
admit this fact, it is foreign to the subject. Even 
Dr. Challoner, the author of The Catholic Chris- 
tian Instructed, says : " Others there are, and 
their numbers are very great, who die in the 
guilt of deadly sin, and such as these go straight 
to hell, like the rich glutton in the gospel — St. 
Luke xvi. — and therefore cannot be bettered by 
our prayers." (P. 146.) 

Having in a previous place established the 
point that paradise is another term for heaven, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 237 

the promise of Jesus to the penitent thief, 
" Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be 
with me in paradise " — Luke xxiii. 43 — is most 
conclusive on this subject. 

In giving farther proof of immediate entrance 
into heaven on the dissolution of soul and body, 
we appeal to such scriptures as in some way 
speak of being present with the Lord, and at 
the same time absent from the body. To present 
this clearly and make it conclusive, it becomes 
necessary to show in the first place that Jesus 
is in heaven. The ascension of Christ to heaven, 
and his sitting down there at the right hand 
of the Father, are points which were foretold 
by Jewish types and prophecies, and which are 
unmistakably taught in the New Testament 
writings. Standing with his disciples at Bethany, 
and pronouncing his blessings in fullness upon 
them, suddenly he ascends from the earth, and, 
while they gaze, he passes swiftly on above the 
tops of the highest mountains, and still on above 
the heights of the firmament, and beyond the 
sun, moon, and stars, into the highest heavens, 
where, in the presence of the angels, and amidst 
the glory which he had with his Father, even 
before the birth of time, he was, in his human 
nature, inaugurated King of saints. 

" So then, after the Lord had spoken unto 
them, he was received up into heaven, and sat 



238 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

on the right hand of God." (Mark xvi. 19.) 
"And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and 
he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And 
it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was 
parted from them, and carried up into, heaven." 
(Luke xxiv. 50, 51.) "And when he had spoken 
these things, while they beheld, he was taken 
up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven 
as he went up, behold, two men stood by them 
in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
seen him go into heaven." (Acts i. 9-11.) "He 
that descended is the same also that ascended up 
far above all heavens, that he might fill all 
things." (Eph. iv. 10.) "For Christ is not 
entered into the holy places made with hands, 
which are the figures of the true ; but into 
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of 
God for us." (Heb. ix. 24.) "The Lord said 
unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I 
make thine enemies thy footstool." (Ps. ex. 1.) 
Having preached a sermon to his accusers which 
cut them to the heart, and being himself full of 
the Holy Ghost, Stephen "looked up steadfastly 
into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus 
standing on the right hand of God, and said, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 239 

Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son 
of man standing on the right hand of God." 
(Acts vii. 55, 56.) 

These scriptures give us divine authority for 
saying, " Christ did truly rise again from the 
dead, and took again his body, with all things 
appertaining to the perfections of man's nature, 
wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there 
sitteth until he return to judge all men at the 
last day." 

It only remains now to show in the second 
place from the Sacred Writings that the soul, 
on leaving the body, is present with the Lord — 
present, too, in a manner which is not enjoyed 
here in the body, and in a way which does not 
depend upon, nor grow out of, the omnipresence 
of Glod. " Therefore we are always confident, 
knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, 
we are absent from the Lord : (for we walk by 
faith, not by sight :) we are confident, I say, and 
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to 
be present with the Lord." (2 Cor. v. 6-8.) 
"For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a 
desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which 
is far better : nevertheless to abide in the flesh is 
more needful for you." (Phil. i. 23, 24.) The 
apostle teaches that when he should be released 
from the mortal body and from this life, he would 
then be with Christ where he has gone to prepare 



240 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

a place for him in heaven, beholding God face 
to face, and seeing him as he is. It can afford 
our opponents no refuge to say that this being 
present with the Lord, grows out of his omni- 
presence, and is secured "by it. To say this, is 
to contradict, or, at least, destroy the sense of 
the apostle. Paul could say, with great courage 
and confidence, in the face of persecutions and 
death, "■ For we know that if our earthly house 
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. v. 1.) Let the 
body, the earthly house, the temporary abode 
of the Christian hero, dissolve— be taken down 
— his soul will fly home to its house not made 
with human hands, which is eternal in the 
heavens. Being eternal, it is no temporary 
abode. There the soul shall eat of the tree 
of life and live for ever. 

Other arguments and other scriptures could 
be given, bearing upon this subject — some, di- 
rectly; others, remotely. The doctrine which 
we have set forth is gathered not only from 
a few select and pointed passages of Scripture, 
but the Bible is replete with it. A system 
of theology, with all heathen superstitions and 
barbarous notions eliminated, and founded upon 
the authority of Divine Revelation, and not 
upon the teachings of Fathers and Councils, 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 241 

must reject the dogmas of a middle and inter- 
mediate state, and maintain that beyond this 
life heaven is for the righteous, and hell is for 
the wicked, and, besides these states and con- 
ditions, there are none. 



242 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE TERMINATION OF THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

A brief chapter on the termination of the 
state of the dead may close these pages. What 
space of time is to intervene this and the period 
of the state of the dead, no one can tell. While 
time shall last, kingdoms exist, and emperors 
reign, the King of Terrors shall sway his scepter, 
rejoice in acquisitions, and triumph in conquests 
made to his empire. Sword and fire, famine and 
pestilence, earthquake and plague, shall all con- 
tribute to augment the mighty throng who go 
down to the grave. Change may follow change, 
revolution succeed revolution, and many states 
and conditions end, hut while our globe revolves, 
and our sun shines, the present state of the dead 
shall not terminate. The expectation of a mil- 
lennial day to dawn before the end of the world, 
and whose reign shall last a thousand years, may 
fill those who indulge the expectation with 
visions of peace and holiness, glory and happi- 
ness. The Church of Christ, holding forth the 
word of life, disseminating truth, inculcating 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 243 

love, and subjugating malignity and sin, may 
produce in the world a state of things tran- 
scendently glorious. The earth may be filled 
with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea; the barbarous heathen may be 
tamed, civilized, enlightened, and made holy, 
harmless, and undefiled ; the waste places may 
break forth into joy and singing, because God 
hath redeemed and comforted his people ; per- 
secution, with its bitter edicts, may lose its 
power; the whole world may be regenerated 
and elevated, and more; but in all the progress 
of the gospel, and the attainments of the millen- 
nial day, there shall be nothing to revoke the 
decree, " Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt 
return." However magnificent the accumulated 
deeds of the Church, and however sublime the 
conquests of the Cross in this dispensation, there 
shall be no literal resurrection of the dead until 
the angel, standing upon the sea and the land, 
shall swear by Him who liveth for ever and ever, 
that time shall be no longer. Consequently, be- 
fore that event, there can be no termination of 
the state of the dead. The expiration of time 
repeals the edict which returns mortal dust to its 
mother dust, arrests the work of dissolving the 
union of soul and body, ushers in the resurrec- 
tion morning, and terminates with it the present 
state of the dead. ■ The bodies lying unconscious 



244 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

and in the grave, shall continue no longer in that 
condition. These bodies shall be detained no 
longer from participating in the happiness or 
misery in which their respective souls are par- 
ticipating. The souls and bodies of the deceased 
will remain no longer apart. The body raised 
up, will be united again with its soul, never more 
to be separated from it. The resurrection ter- 
minates the present state of the dead. 

But "how are the dead raised up? and with 
what body do they come?" It could serve no 
use to edification to enter at this time into the 
various speculations set forth upon this subject. 
Suffice it to say God, who made and upholds 
all things, can and will raise the dead. The 
same body which is buried will be by him pre- 
served in every atom, and brought forth from 
the tomb. No particle of matter has ever been 
annihilated, nor ever will be, until God shall 
see fit to annihilate it at the consummation of 
time. He who "stretcheth out the north over 
the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon 
nothing," surveys in his comprehensive knowl- 
edge, and preserves by his omnipotence, all and 
every particle of matter in existence. The 
sands of the earth he measures, and weighs 
its dust. "Hell is naked before him, and de- 
struction hath no covering" which can conceal 
from his view. Let then the particles of the 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 245 

body mingle with other particles of matter, un- 
dergo various transformations, and be absorbed 
by other bodies, the "I AM" can trace and 
distinguish the dust of the mortal body in its 
latest and completest absorption, and can, when 
the time comes to do so, separate it from all 
other matter, and present it in its original iden- 
tity. And He will. In the resurrection, the 
bodies of the dead, together with those living 
at the time on the earth, will be changed into 
spiritual bodies made incorruptible, and will be 
clothed with honor and power. These bodies 
shall possess the perfection of human bodies. 
All excrescences and deformities heretofore ex- 
isting in any body shall be removed, and all 
imperfections and destitutions will be supplied. 
More of this anon. 

What follows the termination of the present 
state of the dead? The judgment; the appor- 
tioning the world its doom. When the dead 
are raised, they, small and great, shall stand 
before God. The judgment immediately suc- 
ceeds the resurrection. Then the whole race 
of Adam, with all other created intelligences, 
standing before God their Judge, receive their 
final sentence, and witness the doom of the 
universe. The souls of the wicked dead, in 
union with their respective bodies, which have 
been brought up from the grave, go back to hell, 



246 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

there to remain through eternity. All the 
wicked who are living at the time of the res- 
urrection, go down with them to the same fate. 
The souls of the righteous dead, in union with 
their respective bodies, which have been raised 
from the tomb, go back to heaven, there to live 
for ever. All the righteous who are living on 
the earth at the time of the resurrection, ascend 
with them to heaven, to enjoy the same inherit- 
ance. 

The wicked, with bodies constructed upon 
spiritual and indestructible principles, and which 
are never to be reduced to nonentity, being con- 
signed to endless punishment, go down to hell. 
There is a hell— prepared first for the devil 
and his angels. It is a dark prison — a bottom- 
less pit— without water — filled with fire and 
brimstone, from which proceed torrents of smoke. 
There shall be " wailing and gnashing of teeth." 
" The fearful and unbelieving, and the abomi- 
nable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and 
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
their part in the lake which burnetii with fire 
and brimstone : which is the second death." 
Here these ungodly ones are to be the com- 
panions of devils, subjects of death, dwelling 
under the blackness of darkness, suffering the 
vengeance of eternal fire, the smoke of their 
torment ascending up for ever and ever. The 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 247 

terms used to designate the state, portray the 
doom, and describe the duration of the misery 
and punishment of those who know not God, 
and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, are the most emphatic and comprehen- 
sive belonging to human vocabularies. "De- 
part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." 
" These shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment." " It is better for thee to enter into 
life maimed, than having two hands to go into 
hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched : 
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched." Could language be stronger, clearer, 
more comprehensive, more conclusive ? If there 
is any truth in Scripture or any force in 
language — and there must be — then they whom 
the "Judge of quick and dead" consigns to 
hell, will never be annihilated, and shall never 
be released from suffering. While God and 
justice, while law and truth, while heaven and 
hell shall be, the souls and bodies of the damned 
shall exist, and their sufferings continue. In 
hell is no dispensation for making men good, 
no agencies for producing penitence, none for 
conferring pardon. There the damned are cor- 
rupt and guilty, and by their deeds, deepen 
their corruption and add to their guilt. The 
mediatorial reign of Christ terminated, the day 
of grace ended, and the sufferings in hell being 



248 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

penal and not amendatory, the wicked must 
exist and suffer through eternity. Here they 
have 

" No patron ! intercessor none ! now past 
The sweet, the clement, mediatorial hour ! 
For guilt no plea ! to pain no pause — no bound ! 
Inexorable, all ! and all, extreme !" 

Though our earth is doomed to pass under 
the shadow of eternal oblivion, and though Death 
shall eternally revel in hell and for ever prey 
upon the impenitent, we may turn our gaze 
upon a happier scene, and our thoughts upon 
a sublimer theme. What the godly shall he, and 
what they shall possess and enjoy in the home 
of the saints and the city of God, after the 
termination of the present state of the dead, 
is a theme upon which the mind can dwell with 
an inspiration kindled at the throne of the Most 
High, and with a pleasure akin to that of angels. 
All that is beautiful, lovely, desirable, immortal, 
and divine, gather about this subject in unmeas- 
ured magnitude. 

What shall the godly he when, in the union of 
soul and body, they enter the kingdom prepared 
for them from the foundation of the world? 
Who can tell? " Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God, and it cloth not yet appear what 
we shall be; but we know 7 that when he shall 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 249 

appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see 
him as he is." The saved in heaven shall be 
pure in spirit, and whole — complete in body. 
No sin will be in the soul, nor touch of sin 
upon the spirit of the redeemed and sanctified 
who, coming out of great tribulation, have washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb. They are perfect as their Father 
in heaven is perfect — pure as he is pure — holy 
as he is holy. As the affections will be con- 
formed to the principles of right, so also shall 
the intellectual powers be endued with their 
proper strength, and regulated and balanced in 
the due order of their relations and offices. Not 
one of ail the saved in heaven shall be afflicted 
with idiocy or lunacy. Not one shall lie under 
the embarrassment of imperfection of knowledge, 
defect of judgment, or treachery of memory. No 
longer shall they see through a glass darkly, 
neither know only in part, but they shall see 
face to face, and know even as they are known 
by God. 

The glorified bodies of the redeemed shall be 
sound — whole — complete. Many bodies are seen 
in the ends of the earth whose limbs and mem- 
bers have been amputated. Some are born with- 
out their lower extremities, others without hands 
and arms. We have seen a youth in age still 
an infant in size. In all the realms of glory, 



250 THE STATE OE THE DEAD. 

no human body shall appear with blemishes, 
deformities, or deficiencies. All deformities will 
be removed, all amputated members restored, 
all deficiencies supplied, and the glorified body 
fashioned after the risen and glorified body of 
the Lord Jesus. The saints in light shall know 
no age, endure no decrepitude, have no gray 
hairs nor wrinkled brows. Neither will there 
be amongst them a youth in age an infant in 
size. There will he no infants in heaven. 

Some are verily startled by this announcement. 
It is not only contrary to the opinions which 
they have ever entertained concerning the mat- 
ter, but horrifying to their sensibilities, and they 
are ready to exclaim that if it be true that 
infants are not still infants in heaven, then 
heaven will not be heaven to them ! Among 
the brightest anticipations of bereaved parents is 
that of meeting their little ones just the same 
in size and appearance as when they expired 
in their arms. One desiring to console these 
parents, defeats himself in announcing to them 
that their children who die in childhood will 
not be children in heaven. But let us investi- 
gate the subject, then render a verdict accord- 
ing to the developments made. 

When w r e say there will he no infants in heaven, 
it is not intended to teach that children dying 
in infancy are lost and sent to hell. All such 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 251 

will be saved through Jesus Christ, who said, 
" Suffer little children, and forbid them not, 
to come unto me ; for of such is the kingdom 
of heaven." Crowned with the blood-washed 
throng in heaven, they w T ill not there and then 
be infants. They will be of perfect stature, 
like the adult population who are inhabitants 
of the skies. 

Infancy is an immature stage and an imperfect 
state of existence. Adam and Eve were not 
infants when made, but adults. There is a cer- 
tain measure of stature to which every child 
born is, in process of time, to attain by a healthy 
and mature growth. Every child shows some- 
thing of the peculiar stature and figure to which 
it is to attain. Disease may arrest the growth, 
and death, occurring in infancy, terminate it, 
so that a full and adult stature may not be 
reached in this life. But in the resurrection, 
the bodies of adult years which, through disease 
or other causes, fail to attain their full size, shall 
be raised up in the stature which they would 
have attained but for the disease or other hin- 
dering causes ; and the bodies of those dying 
in tender infancy shall be in the full stature of 
adult age. 

It is beneath the conjectures of a healthy 
imagination and the inductions of a sound judg- 
ment to conceive that, in heaven, children will 



252 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

remain under the inconveniences and immatu- 
rities of weak and helpless infancy. The infant 
of a day old and a span long dies. Will it be 
of the same size and in the same condition when 
brought from the grave to its final home in the 
mansions of light ? Think of its limbs and other 
members undeveloped; and is it philosophical 
and scriptural to suppose it will be doomed to 
such a state of frailty and immaturity? As 
well might we expect to meet in the land of 
life and vigor, and on the fields of light and 
immortality, a man bowing under the weight of 
years, with all the wrinkles and decays of age in 
their most deforming and afflicting accumulations. 
Jesus proposes to confer upon those who re- 
ceive him, benefits commensurate with all their 
wants. From those whom he saves through 
the atonement, he removes all the effects of sin. 
"Where sin has abounded in its effects, destroying 
the beauty, perfection, and happiness of man, 
grace shall much more abound in its effects, 
destroying the works of the devil. All of moral 
depravity, mental imbecility, and physical . de- 
formities and immaturities are the fruits of sin. 
Had there been no sin, these had not existed 
— had there been no sin, never a child would 
have been arrested in the progress of its growth 
before it reached the full measure of physical 
stature. So the grace of God abounding through 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 253 

Jesus to the salvation of those dying in infancy 
— salvation from all the consequences of sin — 
shall make them perfect in soul and complete 
in body. As there were no dwarfs and no indi- 
viduals with physical blemishes officiating at the 
altar of God in the Jewish service, so there 
shall be no dwarfs nor individuals of infantile 
size worshiping at the throne of God in the 
Church triumphant. 

In the resurrection ; God can give children 
mature bodies like those of adults; but would 
he not ; in so doing; destroy their identity? By 
no means ; nothing of the kind is involved. 
Raising up children at the last day with per- 
fectly developed and mature bodies, such as 
those belonging to adults, no more destroys 
their identity than does growing up to matu- 
rity, or than changing their bodies from natural 
to spiritual bodies. The maturing of body and 
mind by growth and development, does not de- 
stroy the identity, and make the person so 
matured some one else. Moses was the same 
person when he had come to years that he 
was when the daughter of Pharaoh took him 
out of the water. So also will David's child, 
who died in infancy, be the same person, when 
raised up in the resurrection, with the body 
in stature he would have possessed, had he 
lived to adult years. 



254 THE STATE 0E THE DEAD. 

But some one will say. If in heaven children 
are not children, just as they were when they 
died, their parents and kindred will not recognize 
'them. Pause ! This is not conclusive. One of 
the most cheering thoughts to Christian pilgrims 
and weary patriarchs is that in the country to 
which they are going, and in the bosom of the 
heavenly family where they are, by and by, to 
repose, they shall meet and recognize their com- 
panions in travel, and their dear children of whom 
they have been bereaved. The desire of all hearts, 
the belief of all nations and ages w r hich have any 
knowledge of the subject, and the inspired record, 
attest that in heaven we shall recognize each 
other ! There we shall know our kindred and 
friends, and enjoy their society for ever. Not 
only shall we know and enjoy the society of 
those we have known here, but we shall make 
new acquaintances and form new friendships, and 
converse with the great and good of all nations 
and of all ages. There shall we know Abel and 
Enoch, Noah and Job, Abraham and Lot, Isaac 
and Jacob, Moses and Joshua, David and Samuel, 
Isaiah and Daniel, Paul and Timothy. 

That children in heaven are not the same in 
stature they w T ere when they died, is not a pre- 
mise for the conclusion that parents, kindred, and 
acquaintances cannot and will not recognize them. 
As maintained above, identity is not affected and 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 255 

destroyed by it; and if identity is not de- 
stroyed, why shall not children in mature bodies 
be recognized by those who knew and loved 
them here? Without question, they may and 
will. 

A child comes to the birth — is born. Its life 
expires with its first wail. Soon as possible — in 
a few hours — it is put out of sight and is for- 
gotten. But in the resurrection, God shall not 
forget its dust nor leave it in the grave. It shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come 
forth to everlasting life. According to the opin- 
ion that children, dying in infancy, shall be 
children in heaven, this infant will appear there 
with its body just the same in size it w r as 
when born. Suppose it is there in all the help- 
lessness and tenderness, and physical and mental 
immaturity, in which it was born and in which 
it died ! Will the mother recognize it through 
these ? Deliver us from the thought ! It is not 
through the means of infancy, immaturity, help- 
lessness, or former acquaintance that w r e shall 
recognize our children and others in the courts 
of heaven. Possessing capacities to comprehend 
things correctly, and preserved in identity, and 
permitted to renew our associations and to mingle 
with each other, we shall recognize our kindred 
and our former associates. 

But, says a parent who has buried a beautiful, 



256 THE STATE OE THE DEAD, 

happy, and interesting child of some five sum- 
mers. It would mar my idea of heaven if I 
thought I should not meet that dear, precious 
darling there just as it was when I used to look 
upon its lovely form, listen to the patter of its 
innocent feet, and the lisping of its sweet voice. 
0, I expect to meet it in heaven a bright little 
cherub, with wings of light! This parent has 
an imperfect view of heaven, and wishes to 
retain and perpetuate an imperfect state. Will 
being a cherub and having wings enable the 
parent to recognize the child? No wings did 
it have when here, neither was it a cherub. 
Why then should wings and an angelic nature 
be means of recognition ? 

A Christian mother gives birth to a child, and, 
in so doing, expires. The child lives — grows — 
matures — makes a godly and pious man, and, 
in the strength of years and the vigor of man- 
hood, he dies. After the resurrection, he appears 
in heaven in the maturity of body attained after 
his birth and before his death. Will his mother, 
who died at his birth, recognize him ? Rachel 
will recognize Benjamin when they meet together 
in the kingdom of God, as surely as she gave 
him birth, and as surely as there is such a thing 
as recognition in heaven. And if there shall be 
recognition in this case, there may be where the 
child, dying in infancy, appears in heaven after 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 257 

the resurrection in a body perfectly developed 
and of adult stature. 

Heaven is a pure place, and the state of exist- 
ence enjoyed in heaven, after the resurrection, is 
a perfect state of existence — a perfection of soul 
and body equal to, if not exceeding, that enjoyed 
by Adam and Eve in the time of their innocence 
in the garden of Eden. We conclude, therefore, 
that all infancy passes away with the expiration 
of time, and that in heaven, the land of immor- 
tality, there ivill he no infants. 

At some point in space is a place with its own 
real dimensions and proper boundaries, named 
Heaven. From the descriptions which we have 
of it, we conclude that it is a place of all others 
most to be desired — a place of the greatest good 
— of all good. Its mansions and palaces of 
rarest beauty and greatest splendor, its founda- 
tions, and walls, and gates built of, and garnished 
with, the most precious materials, and its streets 
paved with the purest gold — it is a city of un- 
equaled magnificence and opulence. The land 
of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, was but 
the faintest type with which to give an insight 
into its wealth and happiness. A country of 
most congenial climate, with the loveliest hills, 
most fertile vales, delicious fountains, and noble 
streams, falls incomparably below this heavenly 
country. It is a land of perpetual spring, endless 
9 






258 THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 



day, eternal vigor, and immortal youth. It is 
traversed by the River of Life, on whose banks 
grow the trees which ever and perpetually yield 
twelve varieties of fruits, and whose " leaves are 
for the healing of the nations." To heighten and 
to culminate the glory, God is in the midst of it. 
It is to this place Jesus, the King, shall invite 
the righteous when, at the last day, he says to 
them, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world." And it is to this place they shall 
go when they go away " into life eternal," and to 
the " inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
that fadeth not away." Here where there is no 
sin, where there is no death, shall "the saints 
of all ages in harmony meet." Here shall the 
godly, " clothed with white robes, and palms in 
their hands," receive with "the Lamb that was 
slain " for them, " power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing," 
and "eat of the tree of life, which is in the 
midst of the paradise of God," and "of the 
hidden manna." What happiness, what rapture, 
what bliss do they feel and enjoy as "they sing 
the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the 
song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous 
are thy works, Lord God Almighty ! just and 
true are thy ways, thou King of saints !" 

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